The Discovery of Deliah Phantom
by OnFireGeek
Summary: Danny has a twin sister, and Vlad stole her at birth. What if she was transferred to Casper High and just so happens to have ghostly powers? What about when her foster dad, a Guy in White, agrees to work with Vlad for revenge at Danny Phantom? Who knows? COMPLETE.
1. An Encounter of White Shadows

**Hello fellow readers! This is a story of Danny's twin sister. I'm sorry for those of you who think it's awful to go off the original storyline of the show, but I think it will be interesting. I hope you enjoy! ****Note:**** The story takes place a few months after Phantom Planet. Vlad is also alive, since the show never outright said if he died, even if that fact is highly probable. Danny's secret is only known to the 20 or so people that were around him when he revealed himself, (I'm sorry, but there was no sign in the show that that particular moment was televised) all of whom are trustworthy and will keep his secret. (Valerie was the only one from school who was there aside from Jazz, Tucker, and Sam) That also means that the government doesn't know who he really is.**

**Disclaimer****: I don't own Danny Phantom. I only own the character and story of Danny's twin sister. Now, if you've had enough of my babbling, here's the story:**

**Chapter 1: An Encounter of White Shadows**

Government official Joshua Kelburn walked to his car after a long day of uneventful work. He was tired, and after a whole day of trying to catch ghosts, he wanted to get home and relax for awhile. Now that he had taken in a foster-care daughter, he was sure that he would come home to a hot meal and a clean home. He hadn't wanted to take in the brat, but he could use the extra money that the state sent in every month. _You'd think that being a government ghost hunter would entitle you to more pay._ Josh grumbled to himself, nearing up to his vehicle. Suddenly, his ecto scanner went off, which was programmed to go off when any kind of ghostly activity was near. In an instant, Josh, or Agent J, as he was known as on duty, had whipped out a gun that was specially designed for ghost fighting. Agent J looked around the parking lot. There were only a few cars left in the parking lot, since he was the one who had been designated with lock up duty. Not seeing anything, Agent J put on his sunglasses, which were programmed to pick out the general area of where any kind of spectral activity was taking place.

"I know you're there, ghost. And by law, you are not allowed here unless you decide to be placed inside one of our labs," he said, finally locating where the specter was. And from the looks of it; it was a pretty powerful one. But that didn't concern the Guy in White. He was a professional.

"Oh, I don't know about that," said an elusive voice that seemed to be slightly familiar. Just as Agent J was about to pull the trigger, he felt the weapon pulled out of his hands. "What the-," Agent J then found himself restrained, by what seemed to be invisible ropes. He tried to struggle his way out of them, but they would not relent. Then he tried to call headquarters, (there was always someone there) but to his horror found that all his contact equipment was destroyed. Agent J looked up. Standing before him was the one ghost he thought he would never have to see again. "Plasmius," Agent J said, awestruck.

Plasmius smiled, showing off his fangs to the white clad agent. "And from what I can gather, you are Joshua Kelburn, also known as Agent J, Guy in White," The ghost with the light blue skin, red eyes, white suit, and cape said smugly. Agent J tried to struggle loose. "Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you," Plasmius said with a wave of his hand. "I'm here to offer you a bit of a business opportunity," he said, grinning maliciously.

"What could you possibly have that I want?" Agent J asked the fiend.

"What about the ghost you have been trying to capture since he saved the world? Danny Phantom?" said Plasmius, asking the question with the air of knowing he was right.

At this, Josh froze. He could get him the ghost-boy? "How do you even expect to get close to him?" he asked.

"Well, it wouldn't be that hard if he had someone to find him for you, now would it?" Plasmius stated. Josh's confusion must have been evident on his face, so the floating specter continued, "I know how to make a half human hybrid. Half human, half ghost."

"Like you?" Josh asked accusingly. The statement did not seem to bother the being the accusation was meant for.

"Yes, like me. The only thing I-we, would need is a person that we could dispose of when we finish."Plasmius said.

Josh thought for a moment. On the on hand, he could bait the ghost-boy and then he and his fellow colleagues could figure out what he was and why he continued to make his permanent home the town a few miles over, Amity Park. But, on the other hand, this was Vlad Plasmius, the ghost who had basically held the world for ransom a couple of months ago. "Why should I believe you?" he asked hestitently.

"Because I know how much you want to have revenge on the ghost-boy." Plasmius said evilly. "He saved the world, and he's such an important figure to the world now that no one wants anyone to hunt him. But we both know that one ghost staying in one spot means that they are a menace. Saving the world or not, you need to find out all you can about the boy so you can keep the agency afloat, as you were the one who brought it down in the first place. Now no one wants to fund you, and the only way you can be the esteemed ghost hunter you desire to be, is to catch that pathetic excuse for a hero."

At this, Agent J felt himself grow rigged as he felt the specter's words wash over him. It was all true. At this realization, a hot wave of anger rolled through his muscular, but bulky, figure. "Alright." He told the floating half-ghost, half-human. At once, the invisible ropes that had been binding him vanished.

"Now," Vlad said, rubbing his hands together. "Where are we to find a person that we can use to bait the ghost-boy?"

"I think I might have a good idea," Agent J said, pulling a picture out of his pocket that showed a sixteen-year-old girl. The photo was part of the documents he had received for his foster daughter. On the back of the picture was her name. The girl had given herself he last name, simply saying that it sounded right to her. Said that it 'might be her birth parents' name'. The girl was crazy. Her file had said that she had been part of a set of twins, but her parents had picked the boy over her. She had arrived at an orphanage near the hospital a few hours after birth, moving from foster parent to foster parent, never lasting more than a year. How she thought the last name she had picked out was anything close to what it was for the first few hours of her life, Agent J (or 'Josh' as she called him. He hated that. He preferred Agent J) didn't know. But that was her problem.

On the back of the photo was the name Deliah Preston.

**Thanks for reading! This is my first fic, so let me know what you think... I want to know if anyone's actually reading. If people _are_ reading, (like you are right now ^^) then I'll be much more motivated to get the next chapter up.**

**And for those of who didn't figure it out, (I hope this statement makes you say 'Duh!,' but if not, that's why I'm putting this up) Deliah's twin brother IS Danny. And NO, Danny's parents didn't choose him over her. You'll find out more within the next few installments.**


	2. Strange Invites

**Hello again! Sorry for the wait, I wanted to write a few chapters ahead so I could post more regularly…thanks to everyone who takes the time to read a story that popped into my noggin while walking home from school one day. Anyway, I should shush up and let you do your reading.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. I only own Deliah and her story that you will soon be reading!**

**Chapter 2: Strange Invites**

A few towns over from where the famed ghost hero resided, a girl awoke to find herself in a room she didn't immediately recognize. The girl's name was Deliah, and she had to look around the room before she remembered. She was at Josh's house. He had moved her bedroom to the smaller guest bedroom. She had no idea why, but who was she to argue? He was he legal guardian until she was thrown onto someone else. Or adopted, but she had given up that hope long ago.

Sighing, she glanced over at her alarm clock. It read 6:07 in the morning. It was nearly a full hour before she had to start getting ready for school, but she got out of bed anyway. She sighed as she looked into the mirror. She saw her usual bright blue eyes, ebony black hair that was normally tucked back into a low ponytail, (aside from her bangs, which were always partially hanging over her left eye) she took note of her medium height, and her slender figure that was often classified as a dancer's.

Blowing her bangs out of her eyes, she quickly dressed into her usual attire of red, boot-cut slacks, a long sleeve blue T-shirt with white and red stripes encasing the elbows, a white logo found at the chest, and white and blue sneakers. She tied her waist-long hair back into its ponytail, and seeing that she still had almost 45 minutes to kill, she logged online.

Deliah's only source of happiness came from someone she had met in a chat room a few months earlier. He (she was pretty sure it was a guy) was almost always online, and he always could make her smile. They had met after he had creamed her on an online game called _Doomed_. After literally kicking her cyber-butt up a wall, the player had given her a few pointers, and thus, a friendship was born.

Checking her buddy list, she noticed that he was on. _I hope he hasn't been playing _Doomed_ all night. _She mused to herself. It wouldn't be the first time. Quickly, she typed up a greeting.

_Liah96: Hey. Is this another all-nighter? Or did you just wake up early?_

_Tgeek911: Uh… does dozing off for ½ an hour count?_

_Liah96: Wow! An entire 30 minutes? That might just be the most sleep you've had all week. Seriously though? You need more sleep, Techie._

_Tgeek911: hahaha. You're starting to sound like my mom. You should tell yours to lay off the sleep lectures._

That struck a blow for the only awake person in the house. No one at her school, Arthur High, knew about her being a foster kid. She hadn't told Tech either, figuring he would treat her differently if he knew. So far, she had avoided family questions with Tech and at school. Tech was her first friend in seven years, but that didn't mean she trusted him with her secrets. It wasn't like she was ashamed to be a person in foster care, but she knew that others who might try to take advantage of her if they knew. She recalled the time three years ago when someone had tried to steal from her. He hadn't known about her martial arts background, or her gymnastics. He'd left the school a week before she did.

_Tgeek911: You still there? Cause if not, I might be able to get another 30 minutes of sleep in…_

Delaih flashed back to reality. Smiling to herself about Tech's sleeping patterns, she typed back.

_Liah96: Yeah, I'm here. I was just thinking that the whole 'sleep lecture' you get from your mom might be something you should listen to._

_Tgeek911: Pfft. Please. I've mastered the art of dozing off while it looks like I'm paying attention in class. My best friend, on the other hand, still needs a bit of work. One time, he fell asleep during an English test…Mr. L wasn't to happy. Made him stay after school so he could study. You couldn't pay me enough to stay with that guy any longer than I have to._

_Liah96: I'm sure the right amount of cash would persuade you._

Delaih could imagine the guy (even though she didn't know what he looked like) smile mischeviously at the statement.

_Tgeek911: Dude, you've really gotten to know me._

_Liah96: I'd hope so. You talk about yourself more than almost anything else._

_Tgeek911: Eh. I don't know about that. I talk about meat a lot. And technology. And…_

_Liah96: Ghosts? You talk about them too. More than others normally would._

_Tgeek911: Oh? I do? Hmm…does that freak you out?_

_Liah96: No. I know ghosts exist. Ever since Danny got them all to save us from the Disastroid, everyone knows they're real._

_Tgeek911: DANNY? How did you figure it out? What did I tell you?_

Deliah blinked, surprised.

_Liah96: You know Danny Phantom?_

_Tgeek911: Yeah-but how did you- wait!_

_Liah96: Cool!_

_Tgeek911: You meant Danny _Phantom _before, right?_

_Liah96: Who else do you know that saved the world from the Disastriod by getting all the ghosts in the Ghost Zone to help turn the world intangible a few months ago?_

_Tgeek911: Just the one. Sorry. Maybe you're right. I should get more sleep. I'm gonna go get ready for school; it's almost a quarter til._

_Liah96: Hmm…you're right. I guess I'll talk to you later._

_Tgeek911: Later._

Tech quickly got offline. Deliah looked curiously at her clock. Tech usually stayed online until 7:30. And what was with his freaky Danny Phantom thing? Deliah shrugged, then shut off her computer so she could go make Josh his breakfast.

As Deliah went downstairs to the kitchen, she was surprised to find all the lights on, making the room, which was all white to begin with, like stepping into a spotlight. After her eyes adjusted, she noticed that Josh was sitting at the table. This let off some warnings to the blue-eyed girl.

Josh never went into the kitchen unless it was meal time, and if the meal was already made. The only time Deliah had seen him in the kitchen since he had 'taken her in' was when he had given her the house tour, and when he had told her what he expected of his meals, and how to make them. For example; breakfast consisted of egg whites, skim milk, and plain yogurt. On weekends he had white bread as toast. Apparently being a Guy in White meant you had to _live_ white along with dressing it.

As Deliah cautiously approached, Josh cast her a glance, a glance that clearly told her she wasn't wanted. That she was just something he had to tolerate in order to get his check every month. Deliah was well acquainted with this look, but no matter how many times she had seen it, it still hurt. It didn't hurt as much as it used to, but constant attacks can weaken any barrier.

Josh kept his hawk-like vision on her as she went to the cupboard and pulled out a bowl, spoon, a box of cereal, and a carton of milk. She hesitated before pouring her cereal, wondering if Josh was going to demand she make his breakfast first, but, she figured the man could feed himself.

As she munched on her Cheerios, (the only cereal Josh approved of) Josh surprised her by using his voice.

"Doing well in school?" he asked her. She glanced up, surprised.

"Uh…yes?" she said, wincing at how pathetic her voice sounded. Josh didn't seem to notice; he simply nodded and left the room. Not sure of how to respond to this sort of behavior, Deliah slowly finished her breakfast, and then grabbed her bag. Just before she walked out of the house, Josh stopped her.

"Deliah, wait," he said. She stopped, and glanced at the agent that was entirely clad in white, the only exception of his sunglasses, gloves, and hair.

"What?" she asked.

"I just was … wondering if you'd like to spend some time with me?" the Guy in White asked.

Deliah waited for the government official to smirk, roll his eyes, or _something_ that would make more sense to her.

"Um, sure?" she asked, still uncertain. She watched the man's face carefully, but the attempt to guess what was going on inside the man's head was fruitless. He _was_ a secret agent, after all. He was trained to keep his face impassive.

"Great. Tonight, after school," and with that, he pushed her out of the house and closed the door.

_What was that about?_ Deliah thought to herself as she walked over to Arthur High School. She tried to tell herself that it was just a man trying to be nice, but her gut instinct told her that this wasn't the case. And her gut had never been wrong.

**I know that there wasn't a lot of action (there was none, actually) in this chapter, and for that I apologize. But every story needs the chapters that are fillers. I figured 'Hey, let's get to know the main character' and I thought it was a brilliant idea.**

**Anyway, for those of you who pay attention, it is SPRING BREAK! Yay-ness! I'm definitely going to work on this story. And I'll have chapter 3 up soon. Thanks for reading, and PLEASE review! (I think R&R means read and review, but that's just me) Until next time…**


	3. Suspicions

**Hey all! Thanks for reviewing (those of you who do, it is greatly appreciated!) and I am happy to say that I have finally gotten around to typing out chapter 3! *happy dance***

**Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom. This makes me sad. But *perks up* I DO own Deliah and this storyline. That makes me happy. Enjoy!**

**Chapter 3: Suspicions**

All of the students of Casper High were waiting with bated breath for the final bell to ring. One of the most anxious was a fifteen year old boy with thick, but messy black hair and bright blue eyes. He was dressed casually with a red and white T-shirt, blue jeans, and white sneakers with red stripes. Anyone who saw him would expect him to be perfectly normal. This boy, however, was anything but.

_BRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNG!_ The final school bell sounded, and every student rushed out of the building, glad that spring break was finally here. The raven haired boy exited the school with his two best friends; Samantha 'Sam' Manson, (though if she caught you saying her full first name, she was bound to leave you short a few teeth) and Tucker Foley. The trio started walking home, happy to be rid of school, even for just a week.

"So Danny," Sam said, stretching out her arms, which were a bit sore from all the writing Mr. Lancer, the English teacher, had made them do. "What do you think? Is this glorious, school-free week also going to be ghost free?" The boy shrugged, "I don't know. This week has been a bit quiet, so I assume I'll be busy. That's generally how it works."

Tucker was an African American boy with a love for all things electronic, meat, and his ever present red beret. (which was sometimes replaced with a black top hat. He was the mayor after all) he looked over at Sam, with her gothic clothes, makeup, and thick combat boots, and smirked at her.

"Sam, you do know what this next Tuesday is, right?" Tucker asked the only female member of the trio.

The Goth rolled her eyes, "Of course, Tucker. It's Danny's 16th birthday. Why?"

Tucker looked over at her, somewhat nervously, "Uh . . . no reason!"

Danny snickered to himself as his two best friends bickered, "You're not asking for money are you?" the black dressed girl asked incredulously. "No!" Tucker said quickly, "But if you just happened to drop twenty bucks on the ground right now, it would help me out a lot," the techno-geek said, looking hopeful. Sam rolled her eyes.

"No Tucker. I'm not going to give-or drop- any money that you could have saved on your own. You would have plenty of money if you hadn't gotten all that _Doomed_ stuff, it's pricey, and you don't need it."

"Aw, come on Sam! We can't all be billionaires like you!"

"You guys, that's enough." Danny said, smirking as he cut his two friends off. "You two don't need to get me anything." He told them. Tucker and Sam both gave him a look that clearly said; _You've _got_ to be kidding_. "What?" he asked them.

"Dude, it's your _birthday_. Presents are mandatory." Tucker stated, as if saying anything different would upset the foundation on which he lived his life. Sam seemed to agree.

"Come on Danny. You can't honestly tell us that you aren't excited. What's the worst that could happen? A ghost attack? That's happened before . . . What's on your mind?" she asked him.

"Oh, I don't know," Danny said, shrugging. "It's just that my parents get kind of upset around my birthday. I mean, they're happy for me and all that, but at the same time, they're just . . . sad. Like my birthday is also the day someone died or something." Sam exchanged a mystified look with Tucker, his confused expression enough for her to figure out that he hadn't known about this either.

"Why not just ask your parents about it?" inquired Tucker.

"I've tried. But they either change the subject or insist that nothing's wrong. They just don't want to talk about it," the raven haired boy said tiredly.

"Well, if they don't want to talk about it, then there's not much you can do about it," Sam said reasonably.

"Yeah man. But hey- we can always go to the Nasty Burger to forget our troubles. We _do_ have a good reason to celebrate," Tucker said with a grin.

Danny smiled, "You're right, Tucker. I'm sure I'm making a big fuss over nothing," he said, as the three of them adjusted their course for one of their favorite hang outs; the Nasty Burger.

00000

A few towns away from Amity Park, in a town called Hickory; another teenager with black hair and blue eyes was walking home. Deliah was always cautious when coming 'home', especially with Josh. Today she was particularly nervous. _Why does Josh want to sp_e_nd time with me?_ She wondered to herself. He had _never_ shown any interest in getting to know her; he just left her alone, which was better than some of the other homes she'd been in. Deliah thanked her lucky stars that the only abusive home she'd been in had lasted only two weeks. She knew that lots of kids in the system weren't as lucky.

Deliah shuddered, than firmly pushed away the bad memories. Those things had already happened, and there was no use in trying to change what had already happened. _That's my motto, _she told herself grimly; _Don't fuss about what you can't change._ She sighed when she found herself outside her foster dad's house. Gritting her teeth, she went in.

As she walked through the front door, she paused, straining her ears to pick up anything that might be out of the ordinary. Hearing nothing, she closed the door behind her, and slowly made her way towards the kitchen. It wasn't that she was scared of her newest foster dad, in fact, sometimes it seemed like the government official was the one who was frightened. No, she was just scared of why the man was suddenly interested in her. Both Deliah and Josh understood that they each had their boundaries, and that neither of them particularly liked the other. So Josh attempting to bond with her completely out of the blue (or white, as that was the only color in the house; varying shades of off-white) was as big a warning as a bull in a china shop.

Deliah, noting nothing out of the ordinary, quickly walked through the kitchen and up into her room. Closing the door behind her, she pushed her bangs out of her face, (it was a fruitless attempt; they promptly fell back across her eyes) and began to work on her homework.

Deliah was just finishing her homework when she heard Josh come home. She glanced at her wall clock. It read 6:43. Not his latest time, but the raven haired girl could tell he had made a stop or two on his way home. Tardiness aside, Josh would be expecting his dinner. She blew her hair out of her eyes in mild frustration, put her books away, and walked down the steps into the kitchen.

"Oh. Hi Deliah," Josh said, bringing in a package under his arm. Deliah hid her surprise at actually being spoken to by opening the refrigerator and looking for the ingredients for scrambled eggs. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Startled, she froze. The hand withdrew, as if unsure on how to act.

"I uh, got you something. For tonight," Josh said uneasily. At this, Deliah's jaw dropped. Josh had _gotten_ her something? And he sounded . . . uneasy. Neither of these things were in the normal character of the secret agent. In shock, she turned around, giving the Guy in White her most disbelieving look. The man looked uncomfortable, and, not seeming to know what to do, simply shoved the package into her hands. It felt like it might have been clothes.

"Just, hurry and get dressed," He said gruffly. Deliah looked up at the man curiously. Frustrated, he pushed her towards the stairs that led to her room. Raising her eyebrow up at him, she turned towards her room with the box under her arm.

***scary music* That's it for now. It won't be long until chapter 4 is up. Thank you SO much for reading, it means the world to me. I'm sorry that my chapters aren't all that long, but I'm not the smartest on when to cut things off, so I end up with short chapters.**

**Again, sorry for my not consistent updates, but I have a life outside of writing (a very small life, but still a life) and therefore cannot be expected to update once every other day. So whenever I update, I will update then, and not a moment before.**

**Remember to review, they make me remember why I love writing! I love you for reading, and I send all of you wonderful people warm and fuzzy feelings for reading my first fanfic. Thanks again!**

**-A. Leep**


	4. Suits and Logos

**Hello fellow humans! (If you aren't a human, I apologize for assuming so and ask that you please don't burn down Earth because of my silly mistake) I really need to start typing up the chapters. I handwrite all my chapters before I type them, so I'm always behind. I think I'm working on chapter 6 or 7 now. Anyway, thank you so much for reading, and thanks a bazillion to those of you who review!**

**Disclaimer****: I don't own Danny Phantom. Now that we have covered the blatantly obvious, on with the story!**

**Chapter 4: Suits and Logos**

When Deliah got to her room (with the door definitely locked) she put the box Josh had given her on her bed, and lifted the lid. Inside was . . . a jumpsuit.

"Well, that's disappointing," Deliah muttered to herself. Sighing, she pushed her hair behind her ear, and tightened her low ponytail. She then took out the jumpsuit to get a better look at it. It looked mildly familiar. She took note of the two gloves that stretched passed the elbows, one silver one black. She eyed, the mainly silver curve-cut pants that had large, black shapes that extended down the side of the legs and wrapped around the ankles, the black extending to the footwear. The shirt part was cut off from the waist with a black belt, and had a black strip that went from the right shoulder and extended across the chest to the left waist and circled up across the back, meeting again at the right shoulder. At the top of the black strip, the right sleeve was also black. The silver glove went with this arm, and the black glove went with the arm that was silver. The black neckline covered an inch of her neck.

Deliah put on the jumpsuit, surprised that Josh had gotten her a correct size. She checked her reflection in the mirror, noting how her waist-length hair added to the 'mystery' vibe that Josh seemed to like so much. It wasn't until her eyes moved to the chest area that she noticed something. Frowning, she grabbed the black shoes and ran down stairs to the kitchen, where she saw Josh fiddling with some sort of ecto-gun.

"Josh," she said, making the man lift his gaze to meet hers. She hated that he never took off his sunglasses. They made it harder to read his expressions. "What is this?" Deliah demanded, pointing to the black symbol just above the black wrap-around strip on her chest.

"It's your initials." Josh stated, acting as though this was obvious. But Deliah could detect some nerves in his voice.

"Josh, this is the _Phantom_ logo. As in _Danny Phantom_." She said, looking down at the symbol that was a combination of the letters 'D' and 'P'. Narrowing her eyes at the government agent, she added, "You _hate_ all things ghostly. Especially Danny Phantom. I don't understand why, considering that he saved the _entire world_ a few months ago."

The agent bit back his anger, working hard to control both it and his facial expression. Apparently, the brat had paid attention when he had told her what he did for a living. "They're your initials," he muttered once again. The girl was so stubborn sometimes, it was infuriating. "Now drop it," he said, trying to control his voice. The plan for revenge against the ghost-boy wouldn't work without her.

The girl simply glared at him, then sat down on the floor to put on her black shoes. Plasmius had gotten the jumpsuit, and had simply told him that it was an older and polarized version of someone he had once known. Agent J had taken the suit, but was unsure on why the blue-skinned ghost would need a teenage girl's jumpsuit. But he wasn't one to ask questions.

Once she finished putting on the shoes, Josh racked his mind for the 'parental' things he and Plasmius had planned out to say to the girl so she would be comfortable enough to go where they were going. _What was the line for the clothes?_ He thought franticly, _Oh! _"Does the suit fit?" he asked.

She eyed him suspiciously. That was the thing that bothered him the most about his foster daughter. Her eyes were the color of the sky, and they seemed to look right through him. No matter what he did those eyes were always there to judge him, to tell him that he had done something wrong. He hated how she looked at him, and she'd only been here two months! _Those eyes won't bother me after tonight._ Josh thought to himself.

Deliah blew her bangs out of her eyes, like she always did when she was bored or frustrated, and Josh felt like letting out a large exhale himself.

"Well come on then," he told her, giving up the idea of 'small talk.' Deliah simply got up off the floor, and followed him to his car. He got in, and after a brief hesitation, so did she.

They drove for a long time. After a few hours of driving, Deliah noticed a sign. It said _Welcome to Wisconsin!_ She raised her eyebrows. What in the world did Josh need to do in Wisconsin? And why bring her along with him? It made no sense.

The sun was almost completely gone by the time Josh parked the car. Deliah had dozed off, so when she groggily got out of the white sedan and looked at the building they were in front of, she stopped, rubbed her eyes, and looked again. Impressive didn't even begin to cover the place.

They were in front of . . . a castle. It was handsomely built, and looked like . . . a castle. Deliah stood there, mouth open, for a few minutes while Josh messed with some sort of technology. When Josh went up to the doors and unlocked them, Deliah entered, awestruck at the grandeur of it all. The manor showed signs of neglect; there was a layer of dust over everything, a sure sign that the place was abandoned, but only for a short time. A month, maybe two.

Josh didn't seem to notice any of the splendors of the manor. He didn't cast a glance at the green and golden colors everywhere, (Deliah guessed that the person who had lived here had been a Packers fan; there was hardly any place that didn't have some sort of relic for the NFL team) he didn't look at the sheer size of . . . anything. He just headed towards a room, and motioned for her to follow him once he reached the doorway. Deliah quickly followed the agent. She may not like, trust, or feel safe with the man, but she knew he would protect himself. If she stayed behind him, she would be reasonably safe from anyone (or thing) that might be in the manor. And the fact that the manor obviously hadn't been used for a while added to the creepiness of the castle. So she followed him.

The two people entered what looked to be a library. Josh stopped, looked around, then walked over to the empty fireplace. He looked on top of the mantle and pushed the head of a statue down. All of a sudden, a secret doorway opened. Deliah looked at the agent in surprise._ How did he know where that was?_ She asked herself. Pushing away her questions, the girl in the jumpsuit followed the man in the white tuxedo down into what looked like a laboratory.

It looked like your basic lab, with the examination tables, expensive looking equipment, even more expensive looking computers and machines, many different weapons she recognized as ecto-guns, along with a set of metal doors at the far end of the wall. Deliah looked at the doors curiously. She dimly recognized the doors from pictures she had seen in Josh's office when she had gone through there cleaning. What had that picture been of? Deliah tried to recall the caption that had been next to the photograph. Ghost . . . something. Door way? Passage? Pensieve? No, that was from Harry Potter. What _was_ it?

Josh, not noticing the teenager's face screwed up with concentration on trying to recall a memory, walked over to the said doors, and started typing in a password onto a keypad next to them. Once the password was fully entered, the lights around the room flickered on. (Which was a relief to the young the doors of the . . . whatever it was, slid open, revealing not another room, not a wall, but a swirling green light. Deliah stood, transfixed, by the green light. She started to walk towards it, but was stopped by Josh when he put his arm out in front of her. She shifted her eyes to the agent, a question clear on her face.

"That's the Ghost Portal, entrance to the Ghost Zone." Josh told her, fastening what looked like an ecto-gun to his belt. Deliah blinked as the name settled into her memory.

"Why do we need it?" she asked the Guy in White as the details came trickling back. "Isn't there one a few towns away from Hickory? Amity Park? Doesn't that family of ghost-hunters have one? The Fentons?"

The Guy in White's expression turned angry, "Yes," he said, "but this portal gives us free access." He told her.

Deliah nodded, even though she was still confused, and said nothing. She had learned that the agent didn't like too many questions. So the girl in the silver and black jumpsuit simply stood still while the man worked with a few more ecto-guns, her eyes flitting back to the Ghost Portal every once in a while.

Finally, the ghost hunter rolled his shoulders, took ahold of the girls' gloved wrist, and pulled her towards the portal. She followed dutifully, both nervous and excited at the possibility of going inside the Ghost Zone. The man dropped her wrist as they were passing a table that appeared to have jetpacks on it. Without hesitating, the agent grabbed one. Deliah eyed it, not sure it would work after being left alone for the period of time that the castle had been under neglect.

"What are you-" Deliah tried to ask, but was cut off by Josh as he pushed her into the Ghost Portal, where she vanished with a shriek.

**Oh no! Deliah has been thrown into the Ghost Zone by Josh! He seriously needs to go to some anger management classes. But that's just me. If any of you were confused on how Deliah's jumpsuit looked, just think of an older version of Danielle's from the show, only with no showing midriff and the colors being swapped.**

**So, I hope to get chapter 4 up sometime this coming week, since I'm getting to what (I think) is a good part. The next couple of chapters will definitely dig into the Deliah **_**Phantom**_** part and Danny finding out about her.**

**Thanks a bazillion for reading! I am loving this website, and am having a blast making my own fic. R&R!**

**All the best,**

**Alex Leep**


	5. The Ghost Zone

**GAAAAAAAH! I'm such an idiot. I said 'chapter 4' last chapter when I was ON chapter 4. I feel like such a doofus. Anyway, here's chapter 5. And I apologize for how short all of my chapters seem to be. This chapter used to be a part of chapter 4, but I thought it was getting to long. . .**

**Disclaimer****: I don't own Danny Phantom ****Just Deliah. **

**Chapter 5: The Ghost Zone**

Delaih looked around her in shock. She was floating; she was utterly weightless, in a foggy, green sky. The girl in the jumpsuit looked around her in awe. Off in the distance, she could see what looked like floating islands or asteroids that were suspended in the green sky. The sky was . . . spooky-looking. There was no sun, moon, clouds, and it gave off a ghostly sort of feel.

_Wait. _Deliah thought, backtracking a bit. _Josh pushed me through the Ghost Portal. Does that mean I'm in the Ghost Zone? _The girl felt a wall of panic starting to build up in her chest. _Wait-_Josh _pushed me? Josh PUSHED me! That rotten, two-faced scoundrel!_ Deliah fumed, her hands clenched into fists at her side. She felt something on her shoulder. Taken by surprise, she knocked off the hand and attempted a snap-kick to the chest area. She felt something stop her foot. She looked at her captor.

"Josh?" Deliah asked in surprise.

"Come on." The man known as Agent J said, putting his hands to the silver and black suited teenager. The teen in question was about to ask the man what exactly he was going to do when he activated his jet pack. The two shot off into the foggy green sky.

After a few minutes of flying through the Ghost Zone at top speed, Josh brought the jet pack to a stop. The location seemed to be a floating island with a few buildings off in the distance. Deliah felt her foster dad take his hands away from her waist.

"What's going on?" the foster child asked. The man simply shrugged, and told her that he would be back in a few minutes, he had to go find something. (_Or some_one, Deliah thought) And not a moment later, the Guy in White was gone.

With nothing else to do, Deliah looked around her. _Not much to see_. She thought to herself. Basicly, there were trees, dirt, rocks, and a few patches of grass. She noted there were a few scorch marks on the ground, along with what looked like some hunting traps. _Apparently this is someone's hunting grounds._ Deliah mused to herself.

All of a sudden, she heard something behind her, like a twig snapping. She spun around, her eyes widening at the sight of tons of ghosts, all staring at her. Panicked, she started backing up. She backed up and ended up tripping on something. She fell, and as she fell, she saw a tree that was right where she was going to land. She squeezed her eyes shut, ready for the pain. But to her astonishment, it didn't come. She opened her eyes in surprise when she felt the ground beneath her. The tree was directly in front of her; clearly she had been on the other side before she fell . . .

_I'll think on that later. _Deliah thought as the specters continued to advance towards her. She scooted back, making herself as small as she could. But, she felt herself being lifted up from the back. She tried to turn her head to see who had taken a hold of her, but all she saw was what looked like a metal arm. Beginning to freak out, she let out a scream.

"Josh! Help! I'm being attacked by ghosts! I'm being atta-" she stopped when she heard whoever had grabbed her whisper into her ear.

"He can't hear you, Ghost-Child. He's off leaving you to your own devices. But let me assure you that _my_ devices will put you to waste. Because I, Skulker, the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter, never let whelps like you survive." The metal armed ghost said.

At this, Deliah looked around at all the ghouls nervously. "What are you going to do with me?" she asked, coming to the conclusion that her black belt and acrobatics wouldn't do her much good at the moment.

A teenager that looked like a punk-pop star stepped forward, fingering her electric guitar as she did so. "We're gonna get rid of you, Dipstick. Your brother's caused us a lot of trouble, and we don't want you causing us any problems." The singer with the blue hair said, smirking all the while.

"My brother?" Deliah asked, confused. She didn't have a brother. Well, okay, she _did_ but she had no idea who he was or why he would have made a bunch of ghosts angry. As she came to this conclusion, she felt something hit her in the stomach that made her cry out. It felt like a powerful laser had just struck her abdomen.

A split second later, she felt Skulker (the ghost who had been holding her) drop her. She fell onto her knees, clutching at her stomach. She looked up at all the specters who had a gleam in their eyes that she recognized as revenge. Never a good thing. She tried to get away, but a green fire that was fired from somewhere behind her stopped her from doing so. Slowly, she turned around, and her stomach dropped to her shoes when she saw what was now in front of her.

Every single ghost that she had ever heard of or seen Josh's files on was lined up, surrounding her. They were all in battle stances; though what they thought a single, mortal, teenage girl could do to them she didn't know. She saw an elderly woman who was dressed like a lunch lady, a squat, blue-skinned man in overalls, the punk rocker, the hunter, a tall ghost in a white suit, a ghost who looked like she was made of liquid shadows, a ghoul who looked like a genie, a greasy guy on a motorcycle, and so many more it almost hurt to look at them.

Slowly, the punk rocker walked over towards the girl who was trembling in her jumpsuit. Deliah noticed how her ponytailed hair was acting like a fire. This particular thought did not help her confidence level at all. Grinning maliciously, the singer took Deliah's hand (which was frozen from fear) and also took a handful of her flaming hair and pressed it against the glove of the only living being on the island. Deliah screamed, trying to pull her hand away, but the punk dressed star simply smiled, and let the blue fire that was her hair grow and consume the gloved arm and hand of her victim. All the other ghosts simply smiled and chuckled at the girls cries for help and attempts to put the fire out.

After a few minutes, (in which Deliah's jumpsuit had actually caught fire and was burning without the help of the singer's hair) the fire was replaced with green beams of energy that was emitted from the specters' hands. Every ghost seemed to be firing at her, their once living faces contorted with anger, concentration, and the ever present glint of revenge.

Deliah, with the pain of the fire that was still alight on her suit, was in a level of pain that she didn't even know existed. All of the energy beams that the ghosts were emitting were enough to kill a person. In fact, she felt like she _was_ dying, with her mouth letting out a soundless scream of pain, bright green energies hitting every surface of her body, including her eyes, feet, and hands, she felt like her DNA was being broken down. The pain was so much that, after an eternity of the torture, she finally succumbed to the darkness.

00000

In another world, where living people were the norm, a teenage boy with black hair and startling blue eyes awoke with a start. Sitting up in his bed, he looked around for the source of what had woken him. He saw nothing but his normal bedroom.

_What woke me up?_ The boy wondered. He thought back._ It sounded like someone was screaming._ He thought. The boy strained his ears for any sign of trouble, as he often did. But nothing stuck out to him.

"I'm going crazy. No one was screaming, Fenton." The teenager told himself. But still, he felt uneasy, like he knew that he should be in some sort of intense pain, but didn't quite feel it yet. After concentrating on this thought, he felt a faint tingle throughout his body. After a few minutes, it subsided.

Uneasily, the boy lay back down, "No one's hurt, Danny," he told himself again. "You're just nervous about the lack of ghost attacks." He said, rolling over. But he couldn't help but feel like someone he knew had just been injured beyond repair.

**And that's it for this chapter. I figured that we could use a bit more of Danny before we hit the next chapter, which will be his 16****th**** birthday celebration. I hope that the 'ghost attack' thing wasn't to over-the-top for the rating I've given this, but think about it; how else could I have written that?**

**And remember that Delaih being attacked is **_**crucial**_** to Vlad and Josh's revenge plot, since how can you place revenge against a half-ghost? I'll tell you how: ambush with another half-ghost. One he doesn't know about. There are only 3 half-ghosts in existence: Danny, Vlad, and Danielle. Fat chance of Danielle agreeing to work for the fruit loop, and the chances of Danny trusting Vlad (especially when he should still be floating around in space) are in the negatives. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Waaaaaaay ahead. I think.**

**Thanks a bazillion for reading! Reviews are welcomed, appreciated, treasured, and all that good stuff. ^^**


	6. Birthday Surprises

**I am back with chapter 6! Yay! Sorry about my super slow typing abilities, but in my defense, it's hard to type on a plane that's going out of the country . . . so I feel justified. Anyway, on with chapter 6! This is Danny's 16****th**** birthday, and like the title says, he's going to get a surprise. A very big surprise that he didn't really want, but that he will nonetheless need sometime in the future.**

**Disclaimer: Danny Phantom is not mine. I know you are crying from this tragedy, but that's the way it is.**

**Chapter 6: Birthday Surprises**

"Surprise!" cried the room full of people. "Happy birthday Danny," said Maddie Fenton, a petite woman with violet eyes, an A-line cut hairstyle and a blue jumpsuit with a black utility belt that she was seldom seen without. She saw her son grin at her.

"Thanks, Mom. I didn't know that we were having a party." The birthday boy said, feeling his heart calm down from the shock of seeing his closest friends and family all in the kitchen.

"That's the point, Danny," said the boy's father, Jack Fenton, who was a hulking man in an orange jumpsuit, with black gloves and boots like his wife. "We were going to throw a party, and we will have one weather you want to join us or not."

"That's right, Dad." Agreed Jasmine, (or Jazz, as everyone called her) Danny's older sister, a girl with long auburn hair tied back with a blue headband, a black long sleeved shirt, and light blue Capri's. Her teal eyes twinkled. "But something tells me that Danny _does_ want to party, since it _is_ his 16th birthday." The girl said with a grin.

Danny laughed. "Of course I want to hang out here. Tucker and Sam are already here, so it's not like I'd have a good excuse. Unless there's a ghost attack." He added as an afterthought.

"That's the spirit!" Tucker said, coming over to his friend and slapping him a high five. "C'mon dude. Let's dive into the cake and presents," the techno-geek said, pulling his friend over to the confection.

One hour, a new laptop, cell phone, and three video games later, the Fenton family, along with Sam and Tucker, sat down in the living room, talking about why the Box Ghost never seemed to get anywhere with any of his plans. A few minutes into this conversation, the television flickered on without anyone touching the remote.

"What's with that?" Tucker asked. No one knew, everyone staring at the screen as if it might give an answer.

"Well, it's not a ghost." Jazz said. When she saw everyone giving her curious looks, (especially Jack, who looked more disappointed than curious about how his daughter had come to that conclusion) she explained further, "Danny's ghost sense didn't go off."

Sam cast an uneasy glance at the TV, which was now flipping channels of its own accord. "Then how is it doing that?" she wondered aloud.

"Well, with the right technology, it could be done," Tucker said. When everyone turned their eyes to him, he put his hands up defensively, "Hey! So I've done it before, it doesn't make me a criminal." Right after he said that, the group of ghost hunters all heard a voice they thought that they would never hear again.

"Very true, little badger, very true indeed." Everyone snapped their heads around to stare at the TV, (which was where the voice had been coming from) which now showed a ghost with blue skin, fangs, red eyes, along with a white suit and cape. Danny stood up, his fists clenched.

"Plasmius." He said, with a voice full of loathing. With a flash of white light, a white ring expanded from the boy's waist, and then split into two, which moved their separate ways. Once they finished moving over Danny's head and feet respectively, where a normal teen had once been stood a teenaged ghost. Instead of black hair, it was replaced by snow white, his blue eyes now a glowing green, and his normal, everyday attire now a black jumpsuit with silver boots, gloves, belt, and neckline. The white Phantom logo (a cross between a 'D' and a 'P') on his chest. This transformation only took a moment, and hardly another had passed until his fists were surrounded with the green energy that he could fire from his hands.

"Oh please, dear boy." Vlad Plasmius said, not at all alarmed by the sudden transformation. "I'm nowhere near you. The worst you can do is put a hole through your television set."

"Wait, he can see us?" Sam asked, confused on how the fiend had seen Danny turn into his alter ego.

"Yes dear girl, I can see you. Amazing what a bit of money will do. Now, as I understand, it is the Fenton children's 16th birthday. May I offer my congratulations on living for so long?" the blue skinned ghost said, with a malicious glint in his red eyes.

At this, Jazz smirked, "You need to check the calendar. It's nowhere near my birthday." She said, crossing her arms smugly.

Vlad smiled in a way that had everyone in the room nervous. "Oh, this is rich! And that's coming from me, mind you. Jack, Maddie, (Vlad's smile became forced when he voiced the name of the woman he loved) have you not told them the story of your daughter?" he asked.

Both Danny and Jazz looked at each other, then at their parents. The sadness on both of their faces became more pronounced. Hesitantly, Jazz asked, "Mom? Dad? I'm your only daughter, right?"

At this question, Vlad smiled evilly. "I see I've done my part. I'll take my leave. Oh, and Daniel?" Danny looked over at the television that was showing the ghost in white, who was making a mockery of purity and goodness. "Keep in mind that good things often come in pairs."

Danny couldn't hold in his rage any longer, "What are you talking about? I've said it before, and I'll say it again; you are one _seriously_ crazed up fruit-loop. Do you really think I'm going to believe anything you say?" the boy fumed.

Vlad merely smiled knowingly, (though his eye did twitch when the ghostly teenager called him a fruit-loop) and the television flickered off. Danny stared at it for a moment, then called the white ring back and transformed back into his human form.

"Dad? Mom?" Jazz asked, her voice tinted with worry, for her two parents both had mournful expressions on their faces. "What was the old cheese head talking about? I'm your only daughter . . . aren't I?"

Jack sighed, his usual jovial face forlorn. "Listen to me, Princess." He told his eldest child, "You too, Danny."

"This isn't easy for us to say," Maddie told the four children (Tucker and Sam were listening avidly) "But Danny, you had a . . ." She stopped, as if choked up with sorrow. Taking in a deep breath, she continued, "You had a twin sister." She said. If this had been any other time, Jazz and Danny would have laughed, but the somber faces of their parents, like someone had died, stopped them.

"A twin?" Danny asked disbelievingly. "You're saying that I had a twin sister?"

To all of the children's surprise, the two jump suited parents nodded. "Yes, Danny, that's what we're saying." Maddie said tiredly. "She was born 6 minutes after you. She looked just like you. . ." Danny's mother trailed off.

"Where is she now? What happened to her?" Jazz asked, sounding both awestruck and disbelieving.

"She . . . she died a few minutes after birth." Jack managed to choke out. "We only got to see her once. We didn't even get to officially name her." The man in the orange jumpsuit stopped, and wiped his eyes free of the tears that were threatening to escape.

Jazz lowered her head to her hands, completely blown away. She had a little sister, and she hadn't ever known about it. "Where was she buried?" the words sounded cracked.

"We weren't told." Maddie said sadly. "A nurse simply told us that she had died, but that the hospital would take extra good care of Danny so that he wouldn't . . . suffer the same fate." She said, wiping her eyes.

Danny was frozen. He could hardly believe what he was hearing. He felt something in the back of his mind click. "That's why you always seem to be a bit sad around my birthday, isn't it? You're sad because of my . . . twin that died." He asked. Both of his parents nodded.

"Tucker, what are you doing?" Sam asked the techno-geek, who was typing rapidly on his PDA.

"I'm checking the hospital's records. They have a record of everyone that was born there, even miscarriages and things like that. They should tell us where they sent her for her burial. Or if she was put up for adoption or something." He said, hitting the 'enter' button and waiting for the system to load.

"Adoption? Who said anything about adoption?" Jazz asked.

"Didn't you hear Vlad?" Tucker asked, now scanning the information on his PDA screen. "He said it was _both _Danny and his twin's 16th birthday. That might mean she's still alive. I think." Tucker stated.

Everyone in the room looked at each other, thinking back to what the vampire-like ghost had said. "You're right, Tucker. He _did_ say that." Danny said. The half-ghost turned to his friend, what was reading something on the electronic devices' screen. "Well?"

"I found Danny's birth records, along with a girl's who was born around 5 minutes after. Danny, it looks like you were 3 ounces heavier." Tucker said. After a short pause, he said, "Okay, this is weird." He looked up at his friend. "There's no account for her being, you know, dead. She was healthy, and there are no notes or anything that shows her not being in perfect health. She's as thoroughly filed as Danny. There's even a date from when you took them home-" he was cut off by Maddie as she took this PDA away from him and read all the information herself.

"This doesn't make any sense." She said to her husband as she took the PDA over to him. The man in the orange jumpsuit looked over the online files. Then he slowly lifted his eyes to look at his wife.

"Do you think," he began, hesitating to voice the one thing he had been wishing more than anything the last 16 years, "that our little girl might be alive?" he asked in a whisper.

Jazz walked over to her parents, who were sitting on the couch, and asked them the question that was burned into her mind; "What did you want to name her?"

Both Jack and Maddie looked up at their eldest daughter. "I wanted her name to be Rose," Jack said. "I've read about a type of rose that is repellant to ghosts that my ancestor discovered and used, so I thought that would be a nice name." For some reason, Danny, Sam, and Tucker all winced when they heard that.

"But I wanted her initials to be 'DF', like Danny, so I came up with Deliah. Rose would have been a great middle name, though. Deliah Rose Fenton." The mother said with longing. "I even told the nurse who took her away to be measured that I wanted her name to be Deliah Rose. The nurse then asked me if I had come up with that name, and I told him that Jack came up with Rose. Then he took her away. That was the last time I saw her." Maddie started wiping her eyes again.

Tucker looked at the Fentons, then Sam, who was trying to comfort Danny, and took his PDA back. He then started typing again. Danny looked over at his friend, slightly annoyed. "What now, Tuck?"

"I'm checking all the orphanages within a 50 mile radius to see if any were given a 5 pound, 2 ounce baby girl within a day or two of your birthday, dude." Tucker said, not looking up from the small screen.

"Tucker, do you really think that she might still be alive?" Sam asked.

"I don't know, Sam. I really don't. But if there was a chance that you could find _your_ twin, wouldn't you take it?" Tucker asked the Goth. She looked startled, but, after thinking for a moment, she nodded.

The room was silent as Tucker typed and scanned the information that was available. Finally, after what seemed like an age to Danny, Tucker let out a satisfied "Aha!" and began typing furiously. Quickly, the ghost hero got to his feet and walked over to his friend, leaning over him to peer at the screen.

"What?" he asked, not making any sense of anything on the website.

"Danny, look at this. Tucker said impatiently, highlighting a certain part of the text. "This is a file for a newborn girl that was dropped off at the St. Alice Orphanage around 2 hours after, uh, Deliah was born. The baby was 5 pounds, 1 ounce, and the person who dropped her off said that her name was _Deliah_." Tucker said, scanning the file. "She was signed into foster care within two weeks," The techno-geek said, reading the final statement on the file.

Danny straightened up and pressed his hand to his forehead, trying to make sense of all of the confusion that was his whirring thoughts. "Signed into foster care?" he asked, slightly confused.

"You know, when people take in kids for a while and get some money from the government every month." Jazz said.

"We know what foster care is, Jazz," Sam said, "but how could we find this one girl? If she _is_ really Danny's twin sister, it would be hard enough to find this one person. There are thousands of kids in the system. It would be impossible, even with Tucker doing his thing . . ." the Goth said, casting a glance at her two friends.

"Yeah." Tucker agreed, to everyone's surprise. "This Deliah Preston's files with Child Services aren't very detailed. But from what I can pick out, she's been moved around a lot. She probably never stayed in one place for more than a year. It'll take a ton of work to find this girl, and even then, this Deliah might not even be the girl we're looking for." He said.

Jack exchanged a worried glance with his wife, and then stood up. "We have to try. I've gone exactly 16 years without seeing my youngest daughter, and I need to do my duty as a father and try to find her. I'll go to every foster home in the country if I can find my little girl." The man said with a resolved tone. His wife nodded in agreement.

At that, Tucker promised to dig into the websites a bit further, and Sam said she would use her own connections to find out what she could. Jazz, along with her parents, went off to the closest computer to do their own research, with the name 'Deliah Preston' ingrained into their minds. Danny walked his friends to the door.

"Well, this day certainly didn't go like I thought it would." Danny said, putting his hands into his pockets. His two friends looked at him with sympathy.

"Yeah, it's not every day you find out that you have a twin." Sam said. "And on your birthday no less."

What I want to know is how _Vlad_ knew about it. If my parents wouldn't tell me or Jazz, they sure wouldn't tell anyone else." Danny said. Letting out a sigh, he transformed into his ghostly alter-ego. "I'll see you guys later." He told his friends. "I need to think." He said, before flying off towards the woods that were on the edge of town.

Closing his eyes, he felt the wind push his thick, snow white hair back and out of his face.

He looked down at the woods, trying to sort out his spinning thoughts. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a person who looked very familiar. He turned his head and gave the person a long look. It looked a bit like . . .

"Danielle?"

***whew* Finally, I'm done with chapter 6. This chapter took me forever to get the flow right. Even now I think it's a bit shady. Let me know if I should just rewrite it. I don't have a twin sister that I've never met, so trying to think of a way for the parents to break the news to Danny and Jazz was a bit difficult. I imagine it would be hard, even more so when Vlad (of whom they thought they would never have to see again, as he was floating around in space last they knew of) told them to. And if you know how foster care works, (I don't) let me know if I'm getting all the details right.**

**I have finally caught up on chapters. I haven't finished chapter 7 yet, so expect slower updates. I still intend to update every other week at the latest.**

**Anyway, thanks a ton for reading, and I would absolutely love it if you would click the little blue words that say 'Review this Chapter' and write out what you thought and all that. Reviews make me happy and make me want to write out everything faster.**

**Love, love, love, LOVE,**

**-Alex**


	7. Becoming a Phantom

**Finally! This is one of the chapters I've been really excited to write, along with the next chapter. This is the chapter where Deliah Phantom is introduced. Well, really it's just Deliah, she still has to do a few things before her Phantom side can come through. I hope you enjoy, and thank you to everyone who has reviewed me! I send you happy thoughts everyday! ^^**

**Disclaimer****: Reread that last word. 'Disclaimer' that means that whatever you are about to read that's not of my own making (Deliah, Josh, this plotline, etc…) is NOT mine. Dang it!**

**Chapter 7: Becoming a Phantom**

Deliah felt sore all over. Keeping her eyes shut, she tried to figure out where she was. From the feel of it, she was lying on some sort of cot. She let her mind explore her surroundings further. To her surprise, she was able to hear more than she was normally capable of doing. She heard the whirring of machines around her, even the faint buzz that the lights were making. Deciding that she didn't know where she was, she rolled over onto her side, and opened her eyes.

She was in a lab. She tried to sit up, but stopped and pressed her gloved hand to her forehead when she felt her head start to spin. She stayed in that position until she felt the pain leave her. Sighing, she slowly stood up, holding onto the cot for balance. Once she was reasonably steady, she straightened up. Looking down, she saw that something was wrong.

"Wasn't my suit mostly silver?" she asked, now seeing a black jumpsuit with a silver belt, glove, and stripe, shoes, logo, and leg shapes. "Weird. The colors flipped. Or this is just a different suit." At that thought, she shuddered. "But that would mean that Josh undressed- " She stopped, then quickly dismissed the thought. _I will NOT go there. _She thought. Leaving that behind her, (_way_ behind her) she looked around. Yep, definitely a lab. In fact, it looked vaguely familiar.

She screwed up her face in concentration. Had she been here before? The lab looked expensive, and it seemed to her like she had been here before . . . why couldn't she remember? Turning around, she noticed something on the wall. It was a set of two metal doors. Suddenly, everything clicked.

The manor. The portal. Ghost Zone. Jet pack. Floating island. Hunting grounds. The ghosts. Falling through the tree. (_What was up with that?_ Deliah mused to herself.) Skulker. The punk-rocker. Being shot at with all that green energy. Blacking out.

Once her memories of the past 24 hours had been refreshed, the air conditioner started up and blew her bangs down into her face. This wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary, except that her ebony black hair was now white. Snow white. Horrified, Deliah grabbed her ponytailed hair and brought it around to where she could see it. White. Very white. Tossing her hair back behind her, she caught a glance of someone in a full-length mirror. (Why anyone needed a mirror in a lab was beyond her.) Looking around, she realized that she was alone. The only person that that reflection could belong to was . . . her. She looked back at the mirror, the person inside glanced at her, eyes wide with fear and shock. Slowly, she walked over until she was an arm's length away from the glass. She stared incredulously at the reflection.

The person in the mirror was the same height and weight that Deliah was, the hair the same too, just the opposite color. The jumpsuit was just like the one that Deliah had worn into the Ghost Zone, only where it had been silver, it was now black, and the black was now silver. The skin tone was a bit tanner than Deliah's, and the eyes were a bright, glowing green.

Hesitantly, Deliah lifted her shaking hand to the mirror, and the reflection copied her. The reflection's green eyes widened in alarm. _That's . . . me._ She thought, still in shock. _Oh no, what happened to me? I look like some sort of freaky band member! _She felt her hair, trying to find out if Josh had spray painted it white. (Improbable, but possible) She then tried to yank it off. When she did, her skull felt a sharp twinge, and her eyes watered. _Obviously this isn't dye or a wig. _She mused. _And these aren't contacts. My skin feels normal, so that's not make-up, and I don't feel sunburned_.

Looking at her reflection again, this time in despair, she looked at her jumpsuit; eyeing the logo that she was sure was Danny Phantom's. _Wait._ She stopped her swirling thoughts and backed up. _Phantom. The ghost attack. What if I look like this because of all that power being fired at me? I thought I was a goner, but what if it somehow polarized me? _She looked at her reflection again, noting how her eyes were letting off a sort of spectral glow. Not enough to see in the dark or anything, but enough that the whites of her eyes were very faintly tinted with the green color.

Most people wouldn't ever even come close to her polarized conclusion, but several of her previous foster parents had been scientists, (or wannabees) and the fact that Josh was a ghost hunter helped. But it was crazy. "How many people do I know of that have been mutated by a ghost attack?" she asked herself. Just then, she heard something that sounded like a footstep. Being in an unfamiliar place, with no one nearby, (that she knew of) she whirled around and got into a martial arts stance, with one arm extended in front of her and the other arm up with her had by her ear. Looking different or not, she still needed to protect herself. Looking towards the door, she remained in her stance, keeping her center of gravity low. After a few moments, to her astonishment, a ghost appeared twenty feet in front of her. At this wasn't any ghost, this was the one she had seen on TV, the one who had held the world for ransom. One whom she definitely couldn't trust. "Vlad Plasmius." She said, furrowing her brows and deepening her stance.

"Ah, so you've finally awoken, have you? Wonderful." The blue skinned specter said. When the girl didn't reply, he smiled at her. "Oh please, dear girl, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm here to _help_ you." Again, nothing from the now green-eyed teenager. "Come now, Deliah." The girl frowned when she heard the fiend use her name. "Why do you think I would show myself to such a powerful half-ghost like you?" he continued, "Certainly not to attack you." At this, Deliah looked at him curiously.

"Half-ghost? Powerful? Are you off your rocker? Do you even know who you're talking to?" she asked him, still not relaxing her defensive stance.

"No, dear child, I know exactly who, and what, I'm talking about." Plasmius said, "You _are _a ghost. Now, anyway. But you are also a human." When Vlad saw her lift her eyebrows disbelievingly, he continued on, "Take your suit for example."

Even though she had been trained to never look away from an opponent, she glanced down at her black jumpsuit. Vlad pressed on, "It wasn't black and white when you were in the Ghost Zone. Now it is. And, if I may add, you are practically the spitting image of Danielle." He said, giving her a look like she was a horse he was thinking about buying.

Confused, Deliah asked the first question that came to mind. "Danielle? Who the heck is that?" she asked the ghost with questionable motives. The ghoul in question shrugged.

"Simply the one that that hazmat suit was originally made for." He said. "But enough about experiments-gone-wrong, let's talk about _you_." He told her seeing the girl sigh, then drop her defensive stance, he grinned.

Noticing the fanged being's change in facial expression, the white haired girl frowned, and then crossed her arms at him, clearly showing that she didn't trust him. Ignoring her guarded expression, Plasmius floated over to her until he was a yard away, and then landed lightly on his feet. Then he began.

"You, my dear, are now a ghost-hybrid. Like me. We are exceedingly rare, and there are only three in existence. You, me, and Danny Phantom." At this, Deliah raised an eyebrow.

"Danny Phantom? Really? That guy is _not_ a hybrid, cheese head." She stated. Plasmius looked at her with a bemused expression, even though she thought she saw a flash of nerves in his eyes, and corrected her mistake.

"Oh no, Deliah. Not _Danny_ Phantom._ Dani _Phantom, with an 'I'. It's short for Danielle."

At this, Deliah's thoughts went back to what the ghoul had said earlier and asked, "The sane Danielle who this suit was originally made for? The one I 'supposedly' look like?" to her surprise, the blue-skinned ghost smiled at her.

"Ah. So you do pay attention. Excellent. That will help. Tell me, are you a fast learner? And yes, the two Danielle's are one and the same."

Deliah shrugged. "I manage." Was all she said. She knew the ways of bargaining, and knew that not giving the customer all that was needed to know was a good way to get what you wanted. She didn't know what she wanted, but she would cross that bridge when she came to it. It was a good thing she had a good poker face. Unfortunately, she could tell that this Vlad character was familiar with bargaining as well. And he knew what he wanted.

"Well, let's hope that you will catch on quickly." Plasmius said. Then, he simply jumped into the air and remained there, floating a good foot off the ground. "Come now, jump up." He commanded the girl looked at him as if he were an idiot. Just because she looked a bit (or a lot) different didn't mean that she could fly. The ghost must have sensed her train of thought, because he said something that surprised her. "Deliah, close your eyes and search inside of yourself for power. You may think of it as a type of energy, but that doesn't matter. You will find it. A lot of it. It's the spectral power of your ghost half. I can show you how to change back into your human form, but you need to exercise the energy first. It is very similar to a muscle. The energy will always be yours, even in your human form. Once you find the power, jump. The air will support you.

Deliah looked up at him in surprise. The words he spoke alone were different then what she expected, but the way he spoke them was different too. It was like . . . a fatherly tone. Like it or not, no one had ever used that tone to address the teenaged foster child. It was her weak point; someone who cared.

So after looking up, she closed her eyes, and tried to 'look inside herself', as the specter had been talking about. To her surprise, she found the power, or energy, he had been talking about. It seemed like it had always been there, like it was already a part of her. The amount was . . . a lot. She got the feeling that the power would last as long as she would, her stamina being the measuring stick. Taking a deep breath, she jumped up.

With her eyes still shut, she waited for the ground to find itself underneath her feet, but after a few moments, she opened one eye just enough to peek out, telling herself that what she was thinking was impossible. But lo and behold, she was floating. A good 6 inches off the ground at that, but she was _floating. _As in, suspended in air, nothing holding her up. Her eyes widened. Then, she started to think.

Hesitantly, she put her arms by her sides, and, acting as thought she had done it a thousand times before, (to Vlad's astonishment) shot around the room. She felt alive! She willed herself to go faster, and relished in the feeling when her hair was pushed away from her face. Forget the fact that she looked like a freak with white hair. Forget the ghost who thought she had the same DNA he did. Forget it all; she was _flying_. And it felt like she was somewhere she could be . . . whatever she wanted to be. As cliché as it sounded, flying make her heart soar.

Smiling the biggest smile she had probably ever worn, she slowed down and gracefully glided over to Vlad, whose mouth was open in shock. She smirked at him, looking down at her feet, which was when she realized that they weren't there anymore. Where there had once been feet attached to legs, now was a wispy tail. It was a translucent black. One could see through it, but it definitely had some body to it. The tail started at her silver belt, and just as she was starting to freak out about her lack of lags, she realized that it was a _part_ of her. It moved like a stream of smoke, and kept moving at regular intervals. _Like a pulse._ She thought. She kept looking down at it, then tried the simplest thing she could think of; she pulled her legs apart.

Instantly, her legs appeared, and something registered in the back of her mind. She was less streamlined like this. She stopped everything; not noticing that she had lightly landed on her feet, of that Vlad Plasmius was still staring at her with his mouth wide open. No, what was going through her mind at the moment was much more deep and personal then that.

Deliah was confused about how she knew so much about what was happening. This was totally and completely new to her, yet she felt like she had done this before. She knew how to get her legs back, she knew that if anyone slammed her into a wall, she would be able to get up with not scratches, she knew that her power and energy could be used for different things, and that she would learn those with time, and that she would be able to control herself. . . She felt like she had broken her leg, adjusted to living without it, and now it was healed. She had to learn to reuse it, even if she knew the technique on how to 'use it'. Using something that was forgotten would be difficult, but not impossible.

Deliah shook her head to clear it; all the thoughts going through her head were confusing her. She looked up at Vlad, who was still floating a foot off the ground. _He doesn't look scary of intimidating in the least when he's awestruck. _Deliah mused to herself. She had just begun to smirk at this mental comment when the ghost in white snapped his mouth shut and shook his head, as if to clear it, as Deliah had just done. She could tell that he was impressed with her flying. He was really impressed, and not at all happy to be so. She could read it all over his blue-skinned face. She watched him with a bemused expression as he landed. She also heard (both her hearing and sight had been improved since the ghost attack) him mumble something along the lines of "It took me three weeks to figure out how to do that," which made her smirk turn into a small smile.

00000

Vlad gave the young ghostly girl (he wasn't sure she knew that that's what she was yet, but she was coming onto the conclusion quickly) a curious look. She had just finished walking through an 18-inch steel wall as though it were air. And before that, she had managed to stay invisible for a solid 15 and a half minutes, managing to navigate around the room, performing the various tasks he had set up (i.e. walk over to the end of the lab, make other things invisible, he'd even had her clean some of the equipment before she faded back into visibility.) And her flying was exceptional, especially since she'd been a 'ghost' for 16 hours! (15 ½ of those she'd been unconscious) It had taken him _years_ to perfect what was taking her minutes. It was disturbing him, it was almost like she was getting help. Pushing the thought away, he decided it was time to show her how to change back to her human form. It took a few tries, but she finally got the familiar white halo of power to expand from her waist, split into two, then travel over her body until she was back to her normal, Deliah Preston self.

Vlad had no idea that this girl was so much like the clone he had made from Danny's DNA. She was the spitting image of the clone, and, to that extent, the famed ghost-hero himself. Aside from the fact that she was a girl, and the fact that her outfit was an older version of Danielle's, the two hybrids could be twins. Deliah was even learning faster than Danielle had, who was _born_ with her ghost powers. But the similarities between both Daniel and Deliah was scary.

_Which reminds me._ Vlad thought to himself as he floated over to one of his weapon tables, picked up a specific ecto-gun, and fired it at the girl who was making her hands go in and out of intangibility. With a brief cry of pain, she crumpled to the ground. Vlad looked her over, and then picked her up bridal-style. He turned the both of them intangible as he carried her in the direction of Amity Park.

He made a brief stop in the woods of Lake Eerie, dropped off his cargo, made sure she wouldn't escape if she woke up, and continued on his way, where he convinced a bald man to set up a video chat via a television set with a few thousand dollars.

It was Daniel's 16th birthday, and he had a surprise for him.

**Hey everybody! Don't expect me to update two times a week, I was out of the country, so I got around to writing more. I am starting to see a pattern in this story: chapter ends with Deliah blacking out. I promise to stop, but I needed a way to get Deliah into the woods, and since she'll be stuck, she's gonna need some help (as much as she'll hate to accept it) So if you think I need to be more original and less repetitive, let me, know because this really is for you, and I want you all to enjoy it.**

**Stay tuned for chapter 8, (I sound like a commercial) and thanks a million for reading. Danny will step in for the next chapter and I promise that more action will follow!**

**LOVE TO ALL YOU WONDERFUL READERS! ^^**

**-Alex**

**P.S. the review button does NOT bite. If it does, let me know and I'll try to beat some sense into it. See you soon!**


	8. The Meeting

**I am back! Yay! I have been cured of the worst disease of all time, (also known as writers block) and I have performed my play, so I won't have play practice eating away at my time, since I really do love getting all these reviews from you wonderful people! You are all so patient! ^^ I feel bad for making you wait so long for this installment... and yet, here I am, making you wait even longer. I must be in a good mood. Feel free to send me bad vibes for taking so long and all that jazz. Anyway, here we go; the meeting between the Fenton twins has arrived (although one of them is under the impression that her last name is Preston… we'll have to fix that.) Vlad's appearance back on earth will explain itself as well.**

**Wow. I'm giving you 'previews'? I seriously need to get a life. *gives self a firm shake* Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer:**** Danny Phantom isn't mine. I'm super bummed, but that's life for you.**

**Chapter 8: The Meeting**

Deliah groaned as she rolled over. It seemed to her that fainting was her thing now. She wasn't a fan of her becoming habit. She opened her eyes to find herself in some woods. She did a check to see what had been hurt. As she did so, she recalled that she had been shot from the back, most likely by Plasmius. She let out a heavy exhale that pushed her raven black bangs away from her face. As she continued to see if anything was broken or sprained, she found a suction cup-type thing that was stuck to her side. She tried to pull it off, but her right hand was stuck. She looked at it, and then looked harder. "No way." She said between gritted teeth. "He did _not._" But he did. Her right arm was against a large oak tree. But that's all she could see; her arm and the beginning of her wrist. Her hand was inside the tree.

"No, no, no, no, NO!" she yelled out, trying furiously to pull it out. No avail. Her hand didn't hurt, but she couldn't move it. At all. There was no hole in the tree, just her arm sticking out. Her mind racing at what to do, she thought a minute before remembering: she could turn intangible! Unless she had been dreaming about Plasmius and all that, but no, even though she couldn't feel her power, there was no way she didn't go through that experience. Her imagination wasn't _that_ good.

Wait-she couldn't feel her power? That's not right. Even when she had turned back…human, she had still been able to sense her ghostly energy. _No use in going around it. _She told herself. _I'm a-what was it? A ghost-human hybrid? Josh messed me up and now I'm…whatever I am. Wait-Josh! _She had forgotten about her white cladded guardian. She wondered where he was. _Oh-forget him! I've got bigger problems. Like my _hand_ being stuck in a _tree_. And this thing on my side that Vlad fired at me._ She added to herself as an afterthought.

After a few uncomfortable twists, she managed to grasp the suction cup that was attached to her. She pulled on it, trying to get it off of her. It seemed like it was thoroughly attached to her right side. Getting frustrated with her entire situation, she got onto her knees and promptly began hitting her head against the tree. It wasn't enough to do any damage, but enough for her to vent her frustration. After a few smacks, her forehead started to sting, and she pulled back, rubbing her head. Even though she knew it was hopeless, she gave her hand another tug. Nothing. She tried to get the suction cup thing off. She could reach it, but she couldn't take it off. Great. Just great.

She was considering the idea of trying to break the weird metal suction cup by ramming her side into the tree when she heard a voice behind her. "Danielle? Is that you?" it asked. She tried to turn around, but only managed to twist her arm into an uncomfortable position. Letting out a puff of air in annoyance, she turned the other way. When she saw who it was, she rubbed her eyes with her free hand.

Standing before her was someone she never thought she would meet. He looked insanely similar to what _she_ looked like when she was in her (she stumbled over the thought before she said it firmly to herself) ghost form. He had messy, white hair, glowing green eyes, and the famous Phantom insignia on the chest of his black hazmat suit with silver gloves, boots, neckline, and belt. If she looked anything like the Danielle, then she must have been a clone of his or something. Blinking, she recalled the question.

"No, but I must look like her." Deliah told the ghostly teenager who went by Phantom. He continued looking at her with those probing eyes. She could see why so many girls at school were crushing on him. He was a piece of work. Strangely enough, she had never felt anything but admiration for the said hero.

"Oh. Sorry, you just look a lot like my cousin." He said. This was a surprise to her.

"Danielle's your cousin? Ghosts can _have_ cousins?" she asked him. He simply shrugged, then saw why she was in the position she was in.

"Your hand stuck in a hole?" he asked her, giving her a small smile. "What were you trying to do? Get to the nuts before the squirrels?"

Deliah rolled her eyes at him. "No. come closer and get a better look." She told him, pushing her shirt sleeve back so he could examine her predicament properly. When he hesitated, she smiled at him, "I don't bite. Not very hard, anyway." She told him. He returned her smile as he floated over to her. She watched his face as he examined her wrist. It took a while before he came to the correct conclusion.

"Is your hand _inside_ the tree?" he asked her

She nodded. "Yeah. I'm pretty sure that a ghost turned my hand intangible and then stuck it in here, but I'm not for sure, since I was unconscious at the time." She told him, giving another attempt to pull her hand free. Nada.

"Well, let me help you." Phantom told her. She didn't want to think of him as Danny, it was just to familiar. She cast him a glance. He was still a few feet away, his face looking as if it needed permission to help her. She gave him a small smile, and nodded at her arm.

But when he placed his gloved hand on her shoulder, she felt something tingle through her body, and Phantom recoiled as if he'd been stung. "What was that?" he asked her in an accusatory tone. Why he was so cautious around her she didn't know.

"I have no idea." She said, but then her thoughts quickly flickered over to what Vlad had fired at her. She cast a glance at her side, and Phantom followed her gaze. The suction cup was blinking a bright green light, which seemed to put Phantom on edge.

"What is that?" he asked her, crossing his arms.

"I don't know! All I remember is Vlad firing a gun or something behind me, I blacked out, and woke up here. With my _hand_ inside a _tree_ and this thing on my side. I've tried to get it off, but it's connected to my skin through my clothes or something." She said, starting to get overwhelmed with what was happening to her. Pressing her only free hand to her forehead, she took in a deep, shuddering breath. To her surprise, when she looked up, she found Phantom's face not far from her own, expressions of worry and concern flickering across his features.

"Did you say Vlad?" he asked her. His face was calm, but Deliah detected anger in his eyes. She nodded, not trusting her voice. Even so, the green eyes of the ghost hero burned with a rage that he barely managed to keep to himself. She heard him mutter to himself, but wasn't able to make out the words.

After a moment, she saw his eyes snap back to her submerged hand, then to her side. He then pointed at it, and a beam of energy that looked like the beams all the ghosts in the Ghost Zone had fired came out of his fingertip and hit the suction cup, which promptly broke and fell off her side. He then put his hand on her shoulder, turned them both intangible, and then turned them back solid once Deliah had removed her hand from the tree.

"Thanks." She told him, flexing her hand, when he didn't respond, she looked over at him. He was staring at her, like he remembered her from someplace, but couldn't quite place her. She quirked an eyebrow at him. He blinked and focused on her.

"Sorry. My day's been hectic. You said that Vlad was the one who shot you?" when she nodded, he questioned her further. "Vlad Plasmius? Or Vlad Masters? He held the world for ransom a while back…" Deliah could tell that he really didn't like this Vlad character. And from spending part of an afternoon with the man, even when he seemed to really care about her, she had to agree. She nodded again to answer his question. When he registered her response, he pushed off the ground and began to pace angrily.

While Phantom was muttering to himself about Vlad being up to something, Deliah tried to access her power again. To her surprise, she felt a small amount of it. A _very_ small amount, barely enough to turn her hands invisible for a moment, but her power was coming back. _But why? _She asked herself. Glancing around, she saw the suction cup that had been attached to her side lying on the ground. It didn't look like anything special, but then, it was broken. She picked it up and turned it over. It was mostly white, with a green stripe going around the base. Deliah shrugged, and let it drop back to the forest floor. She straightened back up, and heard Phantom muttering to himself.

"I just don't know how he got back to Earth." The white haired teen said, putting his gloved hand through his hair.

"He went through a portal." Deliah told him, remembering the specter's words when she had asked him a similar question. "He was floating around in outer space, and a portal opened up a few yards away. He took the advantage and flew through." She said.

She looked over at Phantom, his mouth was open. "How did you know that?" he asked her in awe, and then his face quickly turned to suspicion. "Are you working for him?" he asked her, his fists clenched at his sides.

"No! What do I look like, a cheese head? He held the world for ransom, I wouldn't work for him!" she didn't add that he had taught her how to use her…powers. (_That'll take some getting used to._ She thought) She didn't think that this ghost-boy would take well to the fact that she was half-dead. He fought ghosts. He may _be_ one, but he still fought them. She was pretty sure he wouldn't make an excuse for her…look how he felt towards Vlad!

"Then how do you know about him coming back?" the ghost in question asked her. He crossed his arms at her, like she did when she was telling someone without words that she was suspicious of them. Deliah shrugged and pushed her bangs away from her face.

"He told me. I asked him, he answered. And then he shot me with that stupid suction cup and stuck my hand in a tree." She said, gesturing at the white and green piece of technology that was lying a few feet away.

Phantom looked at her, his expression guarded. "Do you know what that is?" he asked, jerking his head at the broken electronic. When she shook her head, he continued, his voice hard. "It's something that cancels out ghost powers. Or makes any ghost that _touches_ you get a shock." He narrowed his eyes at her. When she didn't respond he frowned at her, "And you're sure you aren't working for Vlad?"

Deliah's eyes flashed. "Okay, you don't know me, and I don't know you, which makes it harder for you to trust me. I probably wouldn't in your situation either, but let me say something. I don't lie unless it's to protect someone. I try to stay honest, but it's _really_ hard when you're living _my_ life!" she was yelling at him now, but she didn't care. To her surprise, Phantom didn't shrink back and mumble something unintelligible; instead, he walked over to her and spoke with the same intensity that she had shouted.

"You think your life is tough? You don't even know how complicated mine is. You try living my life, you wouldn't be complaining." His clenched fists were now emitting a green glow, but he didn't seem to notice. His mind was obviously a thousand miles away. Deiah felt sorry for him, but didn't back down. Her life had just gotten a lot more complicated, in the past twenty four hours, and he couldn't compete with her. If she knew one thing about herself, it was that she was as stubborn as anything. She never backed down, unless there was no other option, or it made no sense to continue fighting. It drove Josh up the wall.

Delaih looked once again at the ghost. He was still staring at her with those narrowed green eyes. Obviously, she needed to take her leave. "Thanks for helping me out." She told him. She turned around and began to walk away. After about twenty steps, her mind wandered over to the date. She stopped, spun around. Phantom was still there. "Wait-what's today's date?" she asked him. He looked at her suspiciously when he told her.

"Wow." She said, looking up at the sky.

"What? Is today your birthday?" Phantom asked her, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Deliah got the idea that he had had a really bad day. She may not know him, but something told her that he was a really nice guy, underneath all his guarded expressions and sarcasm.

"Actually-yeah," she told him. He looked surprised. "Well, in reality, I don't know my actual birth date. I only know it was this week in this month. But it was this day that I was dropped off at St. Alice's, so I just say that today's my birthday." She told him, thinking back to what the Child Services person had told her. When she looked back at Phantom, she was surprised to see all of his sarcasm and guarded expressions replaced with utter shock and disbelief.

"St. _Alice's_?" he asked her incredulously. "You don't have parents? Or are they in the army or something?"

Why he was so interested in her back story all of a sudden, especially when he had acted so untrusting earlier, was a mystery to the teenage girl. "Yeah. St. Alice's. It's an orphanage in Amity Park? You probably know about it, you're always around that area. Anyway, yeah, I was put up for adoption sixteen years ago. Signed into foster care two weeks later."

With every word she spoke, Phantom's eyes widened. "What did you say your name was?" he asked her.

Deliah shrugged. "I didn't." When he gave her a pointed glare, she elaborated, "But I'm Deliah. Deliah Preston." He nearly fell out of the sky at that. (The reason was still a mystery)

But before Phantom could say anything, a blue wisp came out of his mouth, and a white wisp came out of Deliah's. Deliah didn't know what it was, but Phantom obviously did. And he apparently hadn't noticed her puff of…whatever it was. (It looked like a puff of steam or like she could see her breath on a cold day.)

"Oh, come on!" Phantom muttered, "Here? _Now_?" he shot her a glance, but was cut short from saying anything when a missile was fired at him. (He expertly dodged it, and it hit the ground roughly 15 feet from Deliah) above the two teenagers was a ghost that Deliah immediately recognized from the Ghost Zone. "Skulker." Phantom and Deliah said, one voice full of venom, the other with fear.

Before anyone could stop her, (not that anyone would, both if the ghosts were occupied with fighting each other) Deliah was sprinting away from the fight.

00000

Once the "Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter" had been sealed away in the Fenton Thermos, Danny flew back to where that girl-Deliah-had been. She was gone.

_She must have run off._ He thought. _Not that I blame her, ghost attacks are never good. _But then Danny's thoughts moved on to something a little more personal. _Deliah Preston. That's the girl that matched up with Tucker's search. She looks exactly like Danielle, only older, which makes sense because Dani's a clone of me. She looked…like she could be my twin._ He looked at the ecto-depleter. His father had constructed one recently. Her hand his hand through his white hair. Ugh. His father. What was he going to tell his family?

_What _can_ I tell them? That I met my long-lost twin sister in the woods, and Vlad's been in contact with her? No. I need to do a bit of my own research. This Deliah might not even _be_ my twin._

But deep down, he knew he was fooling himself. He had seen her stubbornness when they had argued about life complications, and the tilt of her chin and the flash of her eyes reminded him all too much of himself. Her sarcasm, humor, and _outfit_ were all very similar to his own. Hr had discovered his twin sister, and he knew it. But first, he had to find her.

_Can't be too hard. _He thought to himself, as he flew back to Amity Park (the closest town to the Woods of Lake Eerie.) _It's not like she can turn invisible like me and hide from who ever._ He chuckled to himself. _And I can look for her as Danny Fenton. _His face turned serious. _I have to find her. I just have to._

***whew* Well, that's it for chapter 8. I personally don't like the way it ended, (way to cliché for me) but I could not think of anything else. Ideas would help, but I'm getting busy writing up chapter 9. I promise to update more frequently (I now have time on my hands, and I'm hoping that my teachers won't pile tons of homework on poor little me. But, being teachers, they probably will D: )**

**Anyway, I hope you all have a good spring, and thanks again for being so patient with me. I love you all so much! ^^ Remember to review! They make my day and make me want to write **


	9. Plasma Pictures

**Okay, I'm not happy. I meant to have this up on Sunday night, but that entire 'problems with logging in' thing was up. *rips out hair* AARRRRGH! What is this world coming to? Oh well, I guess you're going to have to read this right now... the agony! Anyway, I hope you enjoy, and don't forget to review, I love getting them. ^^**

**Disclaimer:**** Who even reads the disclaimer? You read the word, and you skip down to the story. We all know that I'm not Butch Hartman, and that I don't own Danny Phantom! But then, who's going to read this? I'll tell you who; YOU! You are reading this right now! Maw-ha-ha! (That was an evil laugh if you didn't know)**

**Chapter 9: Plasma Pictures**

Danny sighed. It had been two weeks since his birthday, and he hadn't been able to find Deliah. She wasn't taking up a residence in Amity Park, and St. Alice's didn't have records that went back sixteen years. The only things that Tucker and Sam had been unable to unearth were the names of past foster parents. Danny had checked on all of them; none of them were quality parents. The thought of anyone having to deal with those kinds of living conditions was painful to him.

The Child Services person wasn't much help; apparently you couldn't get the address of a foster kid unless they moved. Or adopted. So the present location was unknown to the public. Tucker couldn't hack into it because the system was working on putting everyone into the computer, and they hadn't gotten around to Deliah yet. The actual hard copy files would have the information, but he had no idea where they might be.

It was harder to search now that school was back from spring break. As had the ghosts. Aside from his run in with Skulker in the woods, the Lunch Lady, the Box Ghost, Ember, and Nocturne had all made appearances. He had dealt with them, the only problem being when he had tried to counter one of Ember's guitar attacks with his Ghostly Wail, which had resulted in a small explosion. No one had been hurt, but it would take a while for the city to repair the park. All in all, a normal two weeks.

With his entire family trying furiously to find their lost family member, Danny felt bad for not telling them, but he knew that finding his twin was something he had to do himself.

In addition to looking for Deliah Preston, Jazz had also looked up several accounts of twins being able to 'sense' what the other was feeling, both physically and emotionally. As crazy as it had sounded at first, it _did_ explain some of the things that had been going on that he couldn't explain otherwise. Like when he had woken up, thinking he had heard a scream a few nights before his birthday, why he had felt sore all over later that day, and several other feelings he couldn't quite understand at the time.

Danny rubbed his eyes as he flew over downtown Amity Park, finishing his nightly patrol. He hadn't been getting very much sleep lately. Once his family was asleep, he often went out to the closest towns to search for Deliah. Most people wouldn't look after midnight, because that was when most people slept, but through Danny's end of the so called 'connection', he had been feeling massive energy drains and pains almost every night. He didn't know what they were for, or what they meant; only that she was active at night, and doing exhausting work at that.

Danny was just getting used to the 'connection', but he was able to feel a huge amount through it. How he was able to all of a sudden feel all of these things when he had gone his entire life without feeling anything was beyond him. In fact, the first connectional feeling he had experienced had been the night before his birthday. The jolt of pain and the scream, he had concluded, had come from Deliah. He didn't know why the connection had opened up then; maybe something had happened to her that made her more like him? But that was crazy. She probably didn't even know that she had been a part of a set of twins.

00000

A few miles away from Amity Park, another half ghost was flying, but this one was flying away from attacks. Attacks that were being fired by Vad Plasmius, no less. Deliah had been taking extensive training the past two weeks, ever since she had seen Vlad in the woods during the ghost fight between Skulker and Phantom. She had surprised him, slamming him against a tree. She had just been about to demand answers when he had covered her mouth with his gloved hand and transported her to a house that was a few miles away from Amity Park and Hickory.

Plasmius had the dropped her onto a gymnastics mat. (The entire first floor looked like a training room.) He only had seemed surprised at the fact that she was conscious. Apparently, he had thought that the ecto-depleter (the gun he shot her with that had cancelled out her ghost powers) would have kept her unconscious for another few hours. The fact that she had been conversing with his 'arch-nemesis' didn't seem to surprise him. Deliah was pretty sure he had a screw loose.

Anyway, the specter simply told her that if she wanted to 'master the amazing spectral power that is available to you'; she was going to have to train to keep them under control. So for the past two weeks, starting at midnight, she worked. He pushed her hard. So hard, in fact, that she was nearly passed out when they finished. Vlad had pulled her out of Arthur High School, and had put her into online classes. They were easy, as school always was for her, but she knew that Plasmius was definitely up to something.

Plasmius had been impressed on their first power trial, so it seemed that he was trying to push her to find out all she knew, and all she didn't. The more she went through her power with ease, the angrier he became. After a few days, he brought in actual ghosts, telling them to fight her until a set time, and then he would evaluate how well she had managed. This made Deliah nervous, since she recognized some of them from the Ghost Zone, even if they didn't recognize her. That, and with the fact that she got around two hours of sleep a day, made her vulnerable.

Still, Deliah couldn't help but feel that she was doing well. She was…powerful. When the rings of power slid across her figure, she knew that she could handle whatever was being thrown at her. Granted, she still had a lot to learn. She had a habit of concentrating most of her energy within the first few minutes of using it. She had to learn that she had enough energy to accomplish whatever she was doing, even over longer periods of time. And, even though she could use her spectral powers, she sometimes had problems controlling them. For example; when she had broken one of Vlad's computers, (She had been testing out her super strength. Breaking something expensive seemed like a good way to get revenge on him for putting a ghost shield and a fifteen foot brick wall around the house; she couldn't get out, as human or ghost.) and heard him coming up around the corner; she had unknowingly turned invisible, and had stayed that way for nearly an hour before she managed to fade back.

Recently, Plasmius didn't seem happy with all of what she could do. Invisibility, intangibility, and flight weren't good enough for him, and she got the impression that he wanted her to develop a plasma ray that she could fire from her hands. He had begun to put her through exercises where she could only fight back through long-distance attacks. If she had any. Which she clearly didn't. But Plasmius kept putting her through attacks that, he thought, would enable her to be able to fire energies from her hands, but only if he worked her hard enough. Well, he was working her hard, and she _was_ getting stronger, but the new exercises were very draining, especially since they were basically consisted of her working on evasion. Until, one day, Vlad came up with a 'fool-proof' plan to get her to move forward with her powers.

Delaih walked into the training room one night, yawning. She had just finished her online school work, and was still sore from the previous nights' activities. That, along with the fact that she'd only gotten an hour of sleep since the previous Friday, put her in a bad mood. But she had to go to 'practice'. Vlad made her train on Thursdays if she skipped. She had Thursdays off from both school and spectral activities. She usually slept or drew; her one creative outlet.

When she entered the training room, she looked around, noting that there wasn't a ghost standing off to the side, waiting for Vlad's okay to begin attacking. There was just Vlad, in his ghost form, holding a thick notebook in his hands. Since it was late, it took the black suited teenager a while to figure out what it was.

"Is that my sketchbook?" she asked, annoyance creeping into her tone. In reply, the fanged specter simply smiled and flipped open the sketch pad so that the pictures were facing her direction. Sure enough, she recognized on of her drawings; a simple one, a past classmate from one of her many countless schools that she had attended. The boy had been nice, until he had tried to steal from her. If she remembered correctly, his name was Ethan Baxter. He had been an easy draw.

Deliah noticed things when she picked up a pencil, she saw the smallest details that most people would over look. She could pick out a flyaway strand of hair, a bulging blood vessel, even the small, stubby hairs that grew back after someone shaved. She noticed these things because even though there were often over looked; they were a part of the picture. Deliah paid attention to the details, and her memory was astounding. (Anyone who played _Memory_ with her wasn't going to last long) As a result, school was easy and she drew to keep herself sane. Her sketchpad was the one place she could go to vent anything. No one had ever been allowed to see the contents, and if Vlad was holding it, it was _not_ okay. Wordlessly, Deliah flew up until she was floating a few feet in front of him, with her hand outstretched.

"Plasmius? Give me the notebook." She said, with a voice as steely as a drill sergeants'. "Now." She told him, her eyes narrowed. Plasmius simply scoffed at her.

"Oh please, dear girl. Why would I do such a thing?" the blue skinned specter said, turning the book around and leafing through it. He turned intangible when she tried to make a grab for it. "After all," he continued as if he were discussing the weather, "it's not like you can _make_ me do such a thing." He said, not noticing how the white haired teen's eyes were glowing an even brighter green than normal.

By this time, Plasmius had flipped to the very back of the sketchbook, which is where Deliah had taped her favorite drawing: one that she had done as a four year old, when she had dreamed about a real family. The picture was the same as any four year old could do; crudely drawn, with yellow clouds and purple grass. But underneath the clouds was a family. The family that Deliah had come from; the Preston family. There was a tall man standing next to a petite woman, the two of them holding hands. There was then another girl, with long hair and a nice smile. The last two people had black hair, blue eyes, and were the same height, one was a girl, the other a boy. Everyone was smiling.

This was the family that Deliah had been born into, the one that had given her away, and chosen her twin brother over her. When she was little, Deliah had thought that her family had always wanted her, maybe they had just left her somewhere on accident. She had thought that someday they would come looking for her.

Now that she was older, Deliah knew that those child-like hopes and dreams were wrong. The Child Services agent had told her that the person who had dropped her off had told them that the family couldn't have two kids, and that they had chosen her twin brother over her. She told herself these things almost every day, and she knew that they were true. But deep down, the hope that someday someone would come looking for her, lived on. The drawing that she had made all those years ago reminded her that _somewhere_, this family was out there. The crudely made drawing was her prized possession.

Deliah looked at Plasmius in horror when he tore the old piece of paper out of the sketchbook. He looked at it in disgust, and then crumpled it up into a ball. Ignoring the sharp intake of breath coming from his fellow ghost-human hybrid, he tossed it away, and before Deliah could fly over to retrieve it, he fired a magenta plasma ray at it, disintegrating it completely.

In shock, Deliah flew over to the small pile of ashes. She picked them up gingerly, and then let them fall through her gloved fingers. Her picture. The one that she had stared at for hours on end, dreaming for her happily ever after, destroyed. Her hands clenched themselves into fists as she turned her bright green eyes on Plasmius, who was watching her, and when she stood up, slowly and deliberately, he got the idea that he had done something he shouldn't have. Because, plasma ray or not, Deliah Phantom was a force to be reckoned with.

Deliah was fuming. She was standing with her shaking fists clenched at her side. Some might say that it was foolish to fret over and old, four year olds drawing, but those people didn't have Delaih's past experiences. That picture had been the thing she had prayed to God with, asking that her family might find her. And now that picture was gone. The only portrait she'd had of her family, and it had been destroyed in a moment of carelessness. In the back of her mind, she felt something open up, but she was too caught up in her own angst to notice the green aura that was encircling her fists.

Vlad, however, was not thinking of his moment of destruction, but was preoccupied with the green energy that the teenager was emitting from her hands. "Oh, wonderful! Deliah, you have done it! You can now fire ecto-energy from your hands. You're certainly picking up on this fast, even faster than Danielle. She, however, could also fire ecto-energy from her-" Plasmius stopped, for Deliah's eyes had flashed back up to him, and her eyes were glowing even more then what was normal for a ghost. Her eyes narrowed and focused, almost to the point of giving the fanged fiend a chill.

Then, to Vlad's surprise, two narrow plasma rays came out of the girl's eyes, and flew at him. He was so surprised that he forgot to put up an plasma shield. (A shield made out of spectral energy) The plasma rays hit him square in the face. Plasmius tumbled quite ungracefully out of the air, and rubbed his jaw where Delaih had (unintentionally) hit him. Instead of punishing her, as she thought he would, his eyes widened in pleasant surprise.

"Butter biscuits, Deliah! Not only can you fire out of your _hands_, but you can do it through your _eyes_. Not even Danielle could do that! I wonder why you can." Plasmius stopped for a moment, obviously in thought. "Come here, dear child." He told her, giving her a look that made her uneasy. Deliah looked at him in confusion. She had attacked him, (On accident, of course, but still!) and he was happy? Not a very safe position to be in. Deliah then lifted her hand up to where she could see it better. It was still glowing a green that reminded her of being attacked in the Ghost Zone. Hesitating, she opened her hand, and then faced her palm at a wall. The feeling of knowing what to do came over her, and she fired a beam of ecto-energy. It was enough to put a scorch mark on the wall, and she knew that this power was effective against ghosts, people, and pretty much anything in between.

Deliah squeezed her eyes shut as she lowered her arm. A number of emotions were rushing through her mind. Anger at Plasmius. Sadness, because of the picture that anyone else would mistake for trash. Fear, because now there was a high likelihood that she could do someone mortal harm with this new power. And she was scared that that was what Plasmius had in mind for her. To harm someone. She was also uncertain about Plasmius's motives. Fear, again, at herself. She was scared about who she might become. That something may happen to her in the future that would turn her evil, and she would be able to do unspeakable treachery, with no one to stop her. She didn't _want_ to hurt people that couldn't fight back. She didn't want to hurt _anyone_. She had been in that position, and it wasn't a good place to be.

Deliah opened her eyes. Plasmius was still looking at her, looking at her with an even more pleased expression that she had fired a plasma ray from her hand. That look in his eyes was still making her feel uneasy. He gestured for her to come over to him. Casting a sad glance at the small pile of ashes next to her, Deliah walked over to Plasmius, who was not expecting the snap kick to the chest that she gave him, and she wasn't expecting the small charge of ecto-energy that came out of her foot while doing the action.

Deliah froze. Her hands, eyes, _and_ feet? What _was_ she? Why did she know so much about things that she didn't even know existed up until a few weeks ago? She needed to get out of there. Away from 'training', this 'house', and especially from Plasmius. So with Vlad Plasmius getting up from the ground, Deliah turned invisible, grabbed her sketchbook, and flew out of the house and over to the brick wall and ghost shield.

The two walls might have prevented her from leaving before, but with a certain destructive something, she figured she could put a hole through the brick wall, climb through it (and the ghost shield) as her human self, and then turn back into Deliah Phantom (Vlad had started calling her ghostly –or Phantom- form that, since she looked very similar to the famed ghost hero, and to keep the 'DP' initials on her chest accurate.) and fly away. And before Plasmius could stop her, she was out, and doing just that.

00000

_Oh, cheese logs._ Plasmius thought to himself. _That girl is so much like Danielle and Daniel, it's almost like they are related. At least she can't go too far without any money. _He told himself. _I'll give her a few weeks, and then go looking for her. She'll be begging to come back. We need her for the plan. _Smiling to himself, the fiend let a black ring come forth from his waist and wash over his body, turning him back into Vlad Masters, CEO of Masters Incorporated; multi-billionaire. He frowned at the small pile of ashes. The reason that that old, scratched up piece of paper with some badly scrawled stick people on it was of any importance to a sixteen year old girl was incomprehensible to him. It looked like something a two year old would have been proud to draw.

**And that's it for this chapter. I'm proud I got it done this quickly, since I was under a deadline for the first time. (*stares off at a reader* You know who you are, and I just want you to know that I will be giving out **_**general**_** times for when I will be updating from now on. The stress was too much! *puts hand on forehead dramatically*)**

**But anyway, I hope you all had fun. I needed Deliah to have some sort of creative outlet. It will be important later on, I don't know how yet, only that it will be important. I also needed a reason to have Deliah draw something clumsily, for reasons the next chapter will elaborate on. If you think that it was totally lame and/or cheesy to have Deliah's prized possession be a scuffed up drawing, let me know. I probably won't change it, but if a lot of you don't like it, I'll relent. (This story is made for your enjoyment, after all.)**

**Thanks SO MUCH for reading. You are my favorite-est people ever! I love you all, and I promise Deliah will be back soon to save Danny from a secret blowing predicament. (Anyone notice that I'm giving out spoilers?)**

**-AL**


	10. Over the Woods and Through a Smile

**Hey all. I am sooooo sorry that I haven't been up in forever and a day. But, since you are reading this, I'll list off my reasons. I was on a band trip, (computers were strongly discouraged) got sick, had to make up the schoolwork for the band trip and being sick, and then my cousin got married. More studies. Had enough of the craziness? Me too. But I also applied for a job, so I might be a bit occupied in the near future, but maybe not. Anyway, I'm sorry for being off, and I hope this chapter will make up for it. If not, let me know. I love reviews. ^^**

**Disclaimer****: Do I really need to go over this with you again? I don't own the stuff unless it's mine! Get it through your head!**

**Chapter 10: Over the Woods and Through a Smile**

The ground beneath her was a blur as Deliah flew away from Vlad's 'training home'. Even though she knew that Vlad had been slowly wearing away her stamina intentionally, she was starting to have second thoughts about leaving. Like it or not, she didn't have a lot of options. She had no place to go, no money, no place to stay, and only the clothes on her back and her sketchbook to her name. She couldn't go back to Josh. He was a Guy in White. She was a ghost. Well, a half ghost if you wanted to get technical, but still a ghost. Josh would have a field day if he found out that she was a ghost. No, Josh's place was not a smart option.

With a sigh, Deliah looked down at the ground to try to pinpoint her location. Woods. And a highway. Deliah adjusted her direction so that she was flying in the same direction. If she remembered correctly, this highway led to Amity Park. If she could, she would try to take refuge at St. Alice's. If not, there was a big hill on the far edge of the park that she could camp out on for a while. But then, the mayor had wanted to turn that area into a housing development, last she'd heard.

At that thought, Deliah face palmed herself. The _mayor_. She'd forgotten that Vlad Masters was the mayor of Amity Park, and that-wait. No. ever since the Disasteriod incident, some teenager had been appointed mayor, since Vlad had been thought to be floating aimlessly in space, and the fact that he was a half ghost. The new mayor was around her age, if she remembered correctly. Tucker Foley? Well, nevertheless, she'd have to lay low for a few days; work out what to do, where to go, and how to feed herself. She'd done it before. When she had been younger, she sometimes ran away from her past foster homes. She would usually last a day or two, before someone found her, usually drawing in a grassy clearing.

Deliah felt her eyes tear up. Even though she was flying through the air at top speed, on a chilly night, she knew her tears were caused by the small pile of ashes that were a few miles behind her. Vlad, with enough money to buy whatever he wanted, didn't get attached to any one thing; since he could always buy more of whatever it was that he wanted. He didn't understand how a drawing that had been made years ago could be anything significant. He hadn't talked to each person on that sheet of paper as a child, imagining a life where he was wanted, where he wasn't just another name on a list. Deliah squeezed her eyes shut, feeling the cold wind sting her face where her tears had slid down. When she opened her eyes, her vision was blurry.

She brought one of her gloved hands up to her face to wipe away her tears. She had just looked up in time to see that she was headed for something. Fast. Deliah only had enough time to process the fact that she should swerve out of the way when she collided with it. Whatever it was, it was _hard_. If she hadn't been in her Phantom form, she was pretty sure she would have gotten a cracked skull. It was also enough to send her tumbling out of the sky. She fell, losing hold of her sketchbook.

Deliah hit the ground with a heavy _thump,_ leaving behind a good sized impression. Groaning, she got out of the large imprint, clutching her head where she had collided with . . . whatever it was. Quickly, she did an inventory of what was injured. So far, only her head was aching. She wiggled her fingers, toes, ankles, wrists, neck, knees, and elbows. Nothing was broken, and a good thing too. Since becoming half ghost, Deliah, in both Phantom and human form, had been able to heal at a rapid rate. What normally took months to heal, sometimes took a few days. Minor injuries, such as cuts or bruises, which she received in her ghost form, vanished when she turned back human. But, even though her ability to heal more quickly than what doctors would believe was even possible, it also meant that when she broke a bone her body tried to heal, often incorrectly. So, Vlad had been 'kind' enough to show her a trick. It had taken days to get right, and even now, it was a bit shaky. The trick was to turn her arm (or leg, or whatever else happened to be fractured) transparent, but keep her bone visible. She then had to set the said bone, and wrap it up. Vlad had even gone as far to break one of her arms to make sure she knew how to properly do it. It had been a painful few hours while she had struggled to set her own arm, and it was an experience that she didn't want to soon repeat.

Once Deliah was satisfied that all of her was intact, she sat up, still pressing her hand to her head. Squinting, she looked around to see if she could find what she had hit. It didn't take long for her to spot something a couple of yards away. It was a . . . person. But, it couldn't be. It was after midnight, and the only source of light was the moon. But this figure was letting off a very faint glow that she dimly recognized. It was white, and not entirely human. Deliah looked down at her feet, which was when she noticed that the white, glowing aura around the figure was identical to what was surrounding her ghostly form. _But then that would mean that . . . _Deliah looked harder. Sure enough, the figure who was climbing out of a similar indentation to her own, was dressed in a black hazmat suit with silver gloves, boots, and neckline, with the familiar Phantom logo on his chest. It was just her luck to slam into Danny Phantom. If she remembered correctly, he didn't trust her and thought she worked for the creep she had just escaped from. But, nonetheless, she should check that he was okay. She did run into him after all.

"Um, are you alright?" she asked the white-haired boy. He groaned, as she had earlier done, and pressed his hand to his forehead. With his eyes still shut, he responded, his voiced letting off a very faint echo that was similar to Deliah's voice while in her Phantom form.

"Yeah, I'm great." He said, his voice sarcastic. He then opened his eyes. They traveled up to her face, and blinked in surprise. He rubbed them, then stood up. but before he could say anything, Deliah cut him off.

"I am _not_ Danielle, if that's what you were going to ask." She told him, thinking back to what he had assumed when he had helped her get out of that tree. _Uh oh. _She thought when Danny Phantom narrowed his eyes at her. _This guy only knows me as Deliah Preston. He's never seen my Phantom form before. What if he makes the connection? _She wondered franticly. She watched with barely controlled nerves as Phantom asked her a question.

"I wasn't going to. You're too tall to be Danielle. She's only thirteen, after all. What I want to know is how _you_ knew about her. And who you are, for that matter." He said, crossing his arms. A small voice in the back of Deliah's mind took note about how he looked _a_ _lot_ like her; he was even standing the same way: back straight, arms crossed. And the fact that the hazmat suits, hair, skin, and eyes were all the same as hers added to the creepiness. Maybe he had looked like Deliah Preston when he had been alive.

"Um . . . I've heard about her. Everyone's always saying that I look just like her." Delaih said, bringing one of her gloved hands to the back of her head; what she did when she was nervous. "And my name?" she asked, unsure on what to say. Vlad had told her to call her ghost form Deliah Phantom, but Deliah wasn't so sure. It sounded like she was some wannabe fan girl. And since 'Deliah' wasn't the world's most common name, she was worried that Phantom might make the connection between Deliah _Phantom _and Deliah_ Preston._ After all, her body build, facial structure, and overall look stayed the same when she changed. Her appearance was just different in . . . well . . . hair and eye color, skin tone, vocal sound, (her voice let off a faint echo while in her spectral alter ego.) and clothing. Which, she admitted, was enough to prevent anyone from making the connection between her two appearances. Heck, it had taken _her_ a few days to recognize herself in a mirror. It's not like he knew about people who just happened to be half dead. Sure, he knew Danielle, but it had probably been a while since their last encounter. Especially if he had mistaken her for Danielle if she was thirteen. Look like her or not, it was still a stretch.

"Yeah. My name is Deliah. Deliah Phantom. And don't harp on my 'originality'." She told him, catching the smirk on his face. "The name was given to me." She informed him. This time, Phantom let out a small chuckle.

"Really? By who? Vlad Masters?" he asked, now laughing out loud. However, when the teenager standing across from him just stood there, with a somewhat guilty expression on her face, the mirth quickly vanished from his features. "No." the ghost hero said, stepping back in horror. (Deliah noticed that even though he stepped back into the dent in the ground, his level didn't change; he was hovering above the earth) "He didn't. Did he?" Without warning, Phantom flew over until he was inches away from Deliah. He planted his feet on the ground, and looked straight into her eyes with a deep intensity. Deliah blinked, but didn't step back.

"You're another clone of me, aren't you?" the question, though blunt, came from a voice that showed how tired the boy was. But that didn't stop Deliah from reacting to the words he had uttered.

"WHAT?" she practically screamed at him, taking several steps back and giving him an incredulous look. Yes, she looked like him. A _lot_ like him. They were practically the same height. Add that to the fact that they both had white hair, green eyes, and similar designs in hazmat suits, and they looked like they _could_ be clones, but saying something like that was just plain ridiculous.

Phantom now looked hesitant, but still convinced. "Not a clone? Hmm. Maybe some sort of crazed fan girl?" the last part was said in an exhausted manner. Deliah, however, was to infuriated by his remarks and assumptions to feel any sympathy for him.

"A _clone_? A _fan_ _girl_? _That's_ what I have to be in order to be here? Ego much?" she asked furiously. Even though she hadn't had much sleep for nearly a week, had broken out of a prison, rammed into someone, and discovered a way to push spectral energy out of her body, all within two hours, she could show this guy that she wasn't a fan girl. Or a clone, for that matter.

000000

Danny was surprised to see this 'Deliah Phantom's eyes flare up when he had asked if she were a clone or a fan girl. Whether she would admit it or not; she looked scarily like him. The only one who had even remotely looked that much like him had been Danielle, and she's been a clone. That, along with the fact that she had let on that Vlad had 'named' her, made him suspicious. He thought it was perfectly understandable. But, obviously, not to Deliah. (The irony that a girl who looked so similar to him also had the name 'Deliah' was so high; Danny didn't even want to think about it.) The girl who looked so similar to him had a fire in her narrowed eyes. Usually, fan girls (or guys, for that matter) denied being obsessive people with way to much free time on their hands, but eventually asked for a picture or an autograph. This girl looked like those two things were the last things she could want. And the last thing he expected was a familiar green aura to surround her clenched fists, which was exactly what was happening.

"What the-" He managed to get out before a green ghost-ray was fired from one of her hands at a tree that was behind him. Eyes wide, he turned to look at her hand, which was letting off green vapors from her attack. She smiled a small, smug smile at his shocked expression. Her smile didn't reach her eyes.

"Still think I'm a 'fan girl'?" she asked him, her voice touched with frustration.

Danny's sleep-deprived mind was spinning. _Another_ ghost? And one that could easily be mistaken for him at that. Where did she come from? How did she get out of the Ghost Zone? And why was she here? Ghosts normally didn't come out into the human world unless it was to visit an old haunt. Or to actually _haunt_, which is where Danny usually had to step in.

But, this ghost didn't look like she wanted to hurt anyone. In fact, she had looked sort of nervous when she had fired the ghost-ray out of her hand. She looked like someone who was lost. And slightly ticked, but that was understandable. She reminded him of how Danielle had looked before she had turned on Vlad. When Danny had tried to convince her of her 'father's true motives, she had looked like this Deliah did. A bit lost. Angry. Guarded. Indignant.

"No." Danny replied. "No fan girl could ever even hope to be able to do that. I'm sorry for the confusion." He told the girl with a smile. She didn't relax her crossed arms position, but did allow a shadow of weariness cross her face.

"Right. Just don't make the same assumptions again." She said. "I have enough on my plate as it is. Which reminds me, where's Amity Park?" she inquired. Even though the question had been asked casually, it sent out warnings to the male Phantom. An unfamiliar ghost wanting to know where his hometown was? Not okay.

Deliah must have read his expression, because she quickly added, "Oh, don't worry. I'm not going there to hurt anyone of anything. I just need to find someone there who might be able to help me get back on my feet. I promise I won't hurt anyone." She thought for a moment before adding, "Unless I'm attacked first." She amended.

Danny couldn't help but to chuckle to himself. This girl had spirit. And she looked like she would stick to a promise. Most people wouldn't believe her, since she had almost attacked him, but Danny felt as if she was someone that could be trusted. He believed her. He got the feeling that she would much rather protect than attack. She reminded him of himself, as weird as that sounded. And it wasn't because of how similar she looked to him. "Three miles in that direction." He told her, jerking his thumb off to his right side. He watched as Deliah's eerie, green eyes flickered over towards where he was pointing, then back to him. She surprised him by giving him a small smile. She then jumped up into the air, hovering a few feet off the ground.

"Thanks. And I'm sorry for calling you an ignorant, big-headed moron." She said. When she saw his expression, she laughed. A care-free, happy laugh. "In my mind." She clarified. "I've had a long day. A long week, actually."

Danny returned her smile. "I can relate." He told his look-alike. Then he turned serious. "But, please stay out of trouble. It's my job to protect, and I'd hate to have a friend put me in a situation where I'd have to do something I really don't want to have to do." His statement seemed to shock the floating teenager.

"You consider me a friend? I met you a grand total of maybe five minutes ago by ramming into your head. You have a very thick skull, by the way. I then attacked a tree. I was considering the grass by your feet, but I didn't know how accurate I would have been, since I have had almost no sleep the past few days." Deliah told him.

Danny smiled at her. He was going to like this girl, he could tell. "True and you have a hard head yourself. (Deliah rolled her eyes at that.) But I provoked you. It wasn't intentional, but I still did it, and for that I'm sorry."

Deliah quirked an eyebrow at him. "Sound a bit more formal, why dontcha? And you already apologized." She said, pushing her snow white bangs out of her face. "But thank you." She said, bringing her bright green eyes up so they met a pair that was identical in color and intensity. "It's nice to know that I'm not necessarily alone." She told him.

"No problem." Danny said, shrugging. "I feel like I almost know you or something. Did I meet you when you were . . . y'know, alive?" he asked. He didn't miss how the female's eyes widened in, was that fear?

"No." Deliah said quickly. "And my . . . death is kind of personal."

"Hey, don't worry about it." Danny told her, holding his hands out in a form of surrender. Deliah nodded and began to fly up into the sky. "Remember to stay out of trouble!" he called after her. The black and silver suited girl gave him a smile as she disappeared from view. She was okay. And he did feel like he knew her from someplace. That's when he saw something lying on the ground a few yards away. He walked over and picked it up.

It was a sketchbook. It was a thick notebook with a maroon cover. There was a black 'DP' drawn on the cover. Curious, he flipped it open. On the first page was a pencil drawing of a view from a car seat window. It was a typical view; the occasional tree, fields, grass, barbed wire fences, and the power line towers. The shading and detail was amazing, but the picture had been smeared. It looked like someone had taken their arm and swept it across the picture from left to right. It looked . . . like a real car ride. The picture was amazing. Danny turned the page. The next drawing was of a leaf. Just a leaf. The leaf had been blown up so that it filled the entire page. The artist had drawn in every little detail; the shadows the tips made, the veins, the delicate stem, the little packets of chlorophyll, and even a small drop of water near the top. It was a work of art.

Eagerly, Danny flipped through the rest of the sketchbook. He didn't even _like_ art, and he knew that these were superb. He passed a sickle moon, a dog, a sunflower, a building, a computer with a blank screen, a folded quilt, a rocking chair, and even a portrait of a person who looked a bit like the Casper High bully and football star; Dash Baxter.

Once he had finished looking through the sketchpad, he flipped back to the front cover. On the inside, there was a brief note:

_Please return to Deliah Preston if found._

Danny stared at that sentence for a few minutes in shock. Deliah _Preston_? The girl he had been looking for these past two weeks? What was she doing out here? This was nowhere near where he had run into her with her hand stuck in a tree. In fact, the spot where he had found it wasn't too far away from where Deliah _Phantom_ had crash-landed. Had Deliah stolen this from Deliah? No, that didn't make any sense. Why would a ghost want a few sheets of paper with pencil marks all over them? They were really _good_ pencil marks, but still!

Then, Danny thought he understood. Maybe Deliah found the sketchbook and was returning it to Deliah! _Wow_. Danny thought, rubbing his head. _Two Deliahs? How am I going to keep them straight? _Well, no matter who, Danny had to get this back to Deliah. Deliah Preston. It was obvious that she had put a lot of energy and time into these drawings, and returning it was the right thing to do. _Of course, getting this back to her would be a lot easier if I knew where she was. _Danny thought to himself.

Danny let out a sigh of frustration. It was late. There were no ghosts out, and tomorrow he had a test that he was nowhere near prepared for. He tucked the sketchbook under his arm and flew home. It wasn't until he was home, in bed, and practically asleep that a wall of worry and fear hit him.

000000

_Oh no._ Deliah moaned to herself. _No no no no no. I did _not_ lose my sketchbook. I did _not_ leave it in the middle of the Woods of Lake Eerie. _And to make matters worse, it had started to rain. What was left of all of her drawings was a wet pile of soggy paper by now.

Deliah wrapped her arms (now swathed in a long-sleeved blue T-shirt) around herself, and buried her face in her arms, which were resting on her knees. Her sketchbook was lost. She was now officially 'homeless' and was sleeping in a tree. Only two thoughts remained as she drifted off: that she was at least away from Vlad Plasmius, and how Phantom had smiled at her, even after she had admitted to almost attacking him. And how he'd called her 'friend'.

***whew* That, my fellow reader, is the longest chapter yet. 25 KB! Woot woot! Oh, and if any of you know ANYTHING about foster care, I would really appreciate it if you would PM me and let me know, since my knowledge on the subject is tragically limited.**

**And, for those of you who think I made insulted Danny's character for not making him realize who he was conversing with, may I remind you about his nickname? Clueless? And Danny has no idea that there is another ghost-human hybrid in existence. And the differences in appearances of both Danny and Deliah (and, to that extent, Danielle) are enough to prevent anyone from making the connection. The only reason Jazz (who is one of the smartest people out there) figured it out was because she saw him change. Even Vlad, who was the world's first hybrid, didn't know it until Danny changed. We see all the similarities because we know that they are there, and we know to look for them. **

**Anyway, thanks soooo much for reading. It really does make my day. I LOVE you all for reading, and don't forget to review!**

**Keep Laughing!**


	11. The Heir of a MultiMillionaire

**Well what do you know? I managed to update two times within a week. Didn't know I could do that. Hmm. Life is full of surprises isn't it? I just want to say thanks to all you wonderful people for taking time out of your day to read my story. It means a lot to me, and I love you all for sticking around to see what happens next. I hope I manage to live up to your expectations.**

**Disclaimer****: The stuff that's not mine? I don't own it. Only the stuff that's mine. Got it? Good!**

**Chapter 11: The Heir of a Multi-Millionaire**

Deliah woke up to the sound of squirrels chattering. Lifting her head from her arms, she blinked from the sunlight that was filtering through the leaves of the tree. Judging by the amount of sunlight and activity of the squirrels, it was probably late morning. Deliah stretched, arching her back against the tree trunk. _Note to self: Don't fall asleep sitting up in a tree. Results in stiffness and back pains. _She thought to herself dryly. Blowing her hair out of her face, she climbed down.

The rain had stopped at around three that morning, and the sun had dried up most of the water, but there was still some dew in the grass, resulting in a pleasant sparkle. It was a sight she would have loved to draw, grass strewn with diamonds. _I can't believe I forgot my sketchbook. _Deliah thought to herself. After mourning her loss for a few moments, Deliah gave herself a firm, mental shake. Her motto on life was to not fuss about what she couldn't change. Well, she couldn't change the fact that her sketchbook was most likely a pile of wet paper somewhere in the Woods of Lake Eerie. Deliah let out a pained sigh, and rested her forehead against the tree she had just climbed out of.

"Excuse me, miss." A gruff voice said behind her. Deliah turned around to see an officer standing with his arms crossed. He didn't look very friendly. "Come with me." He said after examining her for a moment. Deliah hesitated in following him. It was in her nature (after years of making sure she followed orders as accurately as possible) to respect authority. But the last thing she wanted was to get into trouble with the law. Vlad would be able to find her easily if she got into trouble. As would Josh, since he worked for the government. The officer noticed that she wasn't following him, went over, grabbed her wrist, and practically dragged her to his squad car. He obviously wasn't in a good mood. He wouldn't even tell her where they were going, or even why she was in trouble. All she got for an answer was a "_Humph_." And an eye roll.

Deliah was nervous. She had gone from a tree to a police squad car in a matter of minutes. She couldn't phase out of the car, because a) Senor Eye Roll might see her, since his beady eyes were on his rearview mirror more than the road, which was some sort of safety hazard, she was sure. She questioned the man who hired him, especially when they almost hit a stop sign. And b) he would probably tell everyone that a teenage girl had escaped. Attention equals bad. So she stared out the window, watching the world go by. She kept her face blank of any emotion, so the cop wouldn't get any ideas as to what she was thinking. _You never know who might be a spy working for a multi-millionaire. _Deliah thought dryly. _Wait._ Deliah backtracked for a minute. _Heir of a multi-millionaire?_ That rang a dim bell. Deliah racked her brain to remember why. All of a sudden, Deliah recalled a memory from a previous family.

Deliah had been eight when she had been sent to the home of the Amity Park Mansons. She'd only been there for a summer; since they had been wanting to do something 'charitable' for the season while their daughter had been at some sort of gothic camp. Anyway, the Mansons had thought she was nice, and had given her a debit card to access her own bank account they had set up for her to use once she turned sixteen. It had been eight years since then, and the card had been stored at St. Alice's, until she became old enough to use it, so Deliah hadn't remembered to email the orphanage to tell then her current address so they could send it to her. In fact, Deliah was pretty sure that the Manson's weren't even on her file of past foster parents. It had been a charity thing, and they hadn't accepted money from the sate while taking care of her, so the entire thing was off the record. But, if she could get a hold of the card, it would be able to serve as an ID, and it was in her past experience that the Mansons were treated exceptionally well around this area. She just needed ten minutes to herself to fly to St. Alice's, find the debit card, and fly back. _But how am I going to get enough time to get it?_ Deliah thought frantically.

Deliah was still trying to think of a way to get alone without raising suspicion when Senor Eye Roll pulled his squad car up to the police station. When she asked him yet again what she was there for, he simply led her into the building. Where another officer, this one with a much kinder expression on his face, walked up to Senor Eye Roll, and began to talk with him. Deliah sat down in a nearby chair. After a while, the nice-looking cop walked over to her, and stuck out his hand for her to shake. "Hi there, young lady." He said to the raven haired teenager. After hesitating a moment, she put her small hand into his much larger one. He smiled at her. "My name is Officer Landower. Don't mind Sergeant Sarment, he's new, and a bit over enthusiastic about putting a crook behind bars. His heart's in the right place though. But I think he went a bit overboard, bringing you to the police station, when all this is, is a case of a girl playing hooky." Officer Landower smiled at Deliah, who furrowed her brow at him.

"Hooky? Me? Uh, no. I don't do stuff like that." She said defiantly. Deliah paused, and then asked with a bit of hesitation in her voice, "And can I use the restroom?" Officer Landower seemed surprised with how quickly she changed her time of voice. But, like a good cop, he took it in stride, and pointed her towards a restroom. The teenager smiled in thanks, and walked quickly to the bathroom, and into a stall. Once in, Deliah looked to see if there were any people other than herself in the bathroom. No one. Then, knowing that she only had maybe ten minutes a most, muttered to herself, "I'm Going Ghost!" and let the white rings of power wash over her slim figure. She then turned intangible and sped off in the direction of the St. Alice Orphanage.

After a few minutes of flying at top speed, the orphanage came into view. Without hesitating, Deliah turned herself intangible once more to fly through the building and into the file room. Turning back solid, she surveyed the cramped room until she found a file cabinet marked 'N-P'. She pulled it open, and went immediately to the back. After a few minutes of scrounging, she found a file marked 'Preston, Deliah'. She quickly pulled it out and opened it, paying no attention to what it said. She knew what was on there. That she hadn't ever been able to keep an address for more than twelve months. She was a 'mentally unstable' teenage girl with an unsuccessful future ahead of her. She'd heard it all before, and she knew nothing in that file would hurt her. It was just ink on a sheet of paper, after all. She had gotten straight A's at every school she had ever been transferred to. The file was only a result of a bored intern. After a few seconds of flipping through sheets of paper that was meaningless to her, she found it. A small, gray, plastic card with her name on it. Deliah looked at the paper that it was glued to, and pulled it, along with the card, out of the file. She then closed her file and put it back into the file cabinet. Deliah cast a glance at the clock hanging over the door. It had been six minutes she had escaped to the bathroom. She needed to hurry. Jetting off, she cast one last glance around the file room. It looked like it had when she had entered. Before another moment had passed, she was flying back to the police station, praying that Officer Landower hadn't sent someone in to check on her. Putting on an extra burst of speed, she shot through the sky. A minute of two later, the police station came into view. Deliah turned invisible and intangible and flew through the walls, back into her bathroom stall. To her relief, it didn't look like Officer Landower had sent anyone in to check on her. Quickly, she brought back her white halo of power, which reverted her back into her human form. Then, for good measure, flushed the toilet.

Officer Landower was sitting across from the restroom door when she exited. "Took you long enough." He said in a jokingly manner. Deliah simply shrugged, and put her hands in her pants pockets, fingering the debit card and sheet of paper. The police officer then led her to a room that Deliah guessed was his office. There was the standard desk, computer, file cabinet, and papers strewn all over the desk. A small plaque on the desk read 'Captain Landower'.

Deliah turned to him, raising one eyebrow. "Captain? I was under the impression that you were just an officer." The blue uniformed man shrugged.

"To a teenager, there isn't much difference. But, since you're here, I'm going to need to know your name, grade, and school. And if you have an ID, that'd be great." He said, walking behind his desk and sitting down. He pulled out some sort of form. Deliah let out a puff of air that pushed her bangs off her face. She sat down in a chair across from Captain Landower, and pulled the piece of plastic she had tried so frantically to find a few minutes ago out of her pocket.

"My name is Deliah Preston. I'm in the tenth grade, and I don't go to school." She informed him. At his confused expression, she clarified. "I take online courses." She then handed him her card. "And would this count as an identification?" she asked the officer. The said man in blue shrugged, took the card, and swiped it through his computer. Deliah heard a soft _ding_ that let her know that the card was valid. She quietly let out a breath that she didn't know she'd been holding. She watched at the captain read through what was available on the card. His eyebrows went up when he saw where the money in her account was from. He continued to look through the information, and finally sat back in his chair.

"So, Miss Preston.' Offi-_Captain_ Landower began, "Where are your parents? The card's Intel says that the money is from an account of Pamela and Jeremy Manson. You're not their daughter, and there's not a list of where you live, or where and who your parents are."

Deliah blinked in surprise. "You can find all that out from a simple card swipe?" she asked curiously.

The captain shrugged. "Apparently, this card is also backed up with identification information. Not the most common thing to do, but if can be done." He told her.

"Oh." Was all Deliah managed to get out. The Mansons had backed up her card as an ID? Interesting. Looking up, the raven haired teenager saw that the captain still needed an answer. "I don't have parents." She informed him. At his inquiring look, the elaborated further, "I've been in foster care since I was a baby. My address changes a lot, so there wouldn't be an address that remains constant. That card was given to me when I was eight, and it activated when I turned sixteen, so . . ." Deliah trailed, off, not knowing what else there was that she could say. The captain didn't press her for anymore card information. He seemed nice. Maybe he had children.

"So why aren't you at home? Sergeant Sarment said he found you in the park. Most kids that take online classes have some in the morning." The captain told her. Deliah just shrugged and pushed her bangs out of her face.

"My . . . foster dad, um . . . he kind of, kicked me out?" she said, phrasing her statement in a way that make it sound like a question. The captain's eyebrows went up.

"He kicked you out?" he asked incredulously. Deliah nodded.

"Yeah. But it's okay. I'm going to St. Alice's later. They know me, and I'll be able to purchase a computer and stay there until someone comes and takes me in again. Seriously," Deliah told the man with the badge. "It's alright. I've been through and in the system for so long, and so many times, I could do it while in a coma." She said, with a dry smile. The police officer looked unconvinced. Sighing, the blue eyed girl sat back in her chair. "What?" she asked the man in uniform.

"I'm thinking that you should settle down, Miss Preston. Not move around as often as you seem to." He told her. Seeing the look on her face, he quickly added, "Just until the semester is over. I have children, and one of them, my wife and I adopted. I know how hard foster care can be, and I think you need some time off. You said St. Alice's? That isn't too far away from the local high school here. Have you ever heard of Casper High? It's within walking distance of downtown, and I think you could go to school and live at the orphanage until the end of term. There's only a few months left . . . " The captain trailed off, obviously lost in thought. Deliah was surprised. More than surprised, she was in disbelief.

"Where did _this_ come from?" she asked him. Yeah, he had kids, one of whom he adopted. (Of which she was grateful. One less kid in the system who was out of an environment where you were treated like a worthless piece of trash, and into an environment of love and warmth. Anyone who would adopt was considered respectable in her book.) but here he was, offering up an idea for her to use to get away from what she had just escaped from, after just a few minutes of talking with her. Even really nice guys don't just up and decide to help out random foster kids. It just didn't happen. Not to her anyway. Captain Landower looked up and into Deliah's icy blue eyes. The teenager was surprised at how much intensity the cop's brown eyes managed to convey.

"Miss Preston, I became a cop because of three reasons, and for those reasons alone. To protect. To serve. To help. And if I can help anyone, no matter how, then I will do my best to do so." Captain Landower then did something that Deliah did not expect for him to do in the slightest. He took off his badge. "If you will allow me, I would like to help you. You may not want to trust me, since I'm a police officer, I have no business wanting to help you, and I'm supposed to be fining you for playing hooky. But I really do want to help you, Miss Preston. I know that you've probably trained yourself not to trust anyone, and you have every reason to. You probably think that I'm caring way too much about some girl that I met a few minutes ago, and I agree. But I want to do my duty as a father, and help a child who needs it.

Deliah looked down at her hands, thinking ober what had been said to her, a few phrases stuck out. Want _to help. Duty as a father. Want to help_ you. The raven haired teenager looked up and into the kind eyes of the captain. Her one weakness. The one thing that could break down all the walls she had built up around her heart; someone who cared. Someone who genuinely cared. And something inside her gut told her that no matter the circumstance, she could trust this man. And so, after taking in a deep breath, the blue eyed girl consented. "Okay." She told the captain in a whisper.

Captain Landower smiled, picked up his badge, walked around his desk, and held out his hand to help the seated teenager up. After a brief hesitation, Deliah slipped her much daintier hand into his. Captain Landower smiled as he pulled her up. He then handed her out of his office, out of the police station, and into his squad car.

000000

That night, Deliah lay in a bed on the second story of the St. Alice Orphanage. The room was small, with a chest of drawers, a closet, and a desk being the only addition to the bed. Captain Landower had straightened out the whole thing, setting up her enrollment at Casper High, making sure she had her own room, giving her walking (or, in her case, flying) directions to the school, and even giving her his card with his cell, home, and work numbers. He told her to call if she needed anything, and Deliah knew that he had meant it.

But now, on the eve of her first day at Casper High School, she felt nervous. She knew what to expect, of course, she'd had several first days, and knew how the routine generally went. But she was still nervous. Sighing, she sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes, when she opened them, her gaze fell on her new backpack that she had gotten that afternoon. As soon as the volunteer had shown her her room, Deliah had gone shopping. She'd gotten the customary school supplies, extra changes of clothes, and a brand new sketchbook.

Blowing her hair out of her face, Deliah laid down again. What was she worried about? That she wouldn't make any friends? She'd been there. It wasn't fun, but she managed. Especially since she'd met Tech. At that thought, Deliah's bright blue eyes flew open. _Tech! I haven't been online for almost two weeks; he probably thinks that I've deleted my file or something. _She thought to herself miserably. She felt guilty for forgetting about him, and made a mental not to buy a laptop tomorrow. She didn't need to worry about expenses anymore, since her resources were almost unlimited.

Deliah tried to relax. She was safe. Vlad wouldn't think to look for her, since both of his identities were known worldwide. Any ghosts that might attack she could handle, if Phantom didn't get to them first. And her responsibilities tomorrow would end at three thirty, not well past midnight. The teenaged ghost-human hybrid took in a deep breath, and let the black wave that was unconscienciousness overtake her.

000000

Danny groaned as he stretched at his school desk. Even though the night hadn't had any spectral activity, he was still not the biggest morning person. Sam and Tucker were both killing time, waiting for class to start. Sadly, Mrs. Cremay was on maternity leave and Mr. Lancer, who normally had prep first period, was filling in for the rest of the year. Just Danny's luck to have Lancer the only period that he was teaching sophomores, and not freshmen. At least he had Tucker and Sam with him to share the pain. Sighing, the raven haired boy plopped his head down onto his desk, trying to tune out all the voices around him.

"Excuse me, class." Mr. Lancer, a tall, bald, bearded, overweight teacher said to the class. After a few moments, the high schoolers shushed themselves. Once the class was silent, the teacher continued, "Today we are going to have a new student. Right now she's being given a tour of the school, so she'll be here momentarily. But keep in mind that it's hard to start over, especially this close to the end of the year." At this point, he paused to stare pointedly at a group of students near the back who were either excessive in muscle or makeup. "I expect you all to welcome this new student as if she were your own sister."

Danny rolled his eyes, and shared a smile with Tucker, who was typing into his PDA secretively under his desk. Just then, there was a knock at the door, and Principal Ishyama stuck her head in. When she saw everyone seated and obviously waiting for the presentation of the new student, she opened the door, stepped into the classroom, and beckoned someone Danny couldn't see into the room. When the person stepped in, Danny's breath caught in his throat.

The girl who stepped through the door was of medium height, slender build, and had big, bright blue eyes, with raven black hair tied into a low ponytail. She was dressed in red slacks, a long sleeved blue T-shirt with red and white elbows with a white logo at the chest, and white and blue sneakers. Bangs partially covered one eye. The girl looked around at the class, her gaze stopping at Danny. The smallest of smiles touched her lips before she looked away.

Danny couldn't believe it. After weeks of looking, the one person he and the rest of his family had been looking for since his sixteenth birthday was standing in front of the class as Mr. Lancer introduced her. When Tucker and Sam heard the name, they both snapped their heads around to stare at Danny in disbelief, who hadn't taken his eyes off the new girl. At last, he managed to whisper one strangled sounding word.

"Deliah?"

**Aren't I cruel, leaving you at such a cliffhanger? Oh well! You are just going to have to come back and keep reading. Or something. Anyway, it's late, and I really need to hit the sack. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope to have magical chapter 12 up sometime next week. But I am really stretched for time this week, I've got like four school projects due, and my brother has a musical this coming weekend, so I hope you'll all be patient, because even though Danny's clueless, he's not by any stretch of the imagination stupid. Can he put two and two together and figure out some similarities between the two Deliahs, both Preston and Phantom? Will Deliah want to talk to a boy who was staring at her, or will Dash take an interest to her?**

**All I can say is that I'm so glad you've read up, and I hope to hear from you soon! I love you all! Cyber cookies to all you wonderful people! *passes them out***

**Keep laughing!**

**P.S. That stuff I said above? If you want to know what's going to happen, just think: Deliah's a Fenton. And a Phantom. Enough said. ^^**


	12. Casper High

**Hello, you wonderful, dedicated patient readers! I am back, with chapter 12 in tow! Woot woot. I hope that you aren't disappointed by this chapter, since the only action involves Dash getting owned. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Anyway, I just want to thank all of you for coming back again and again to see what happens. Ten alerts and ten favorites? You guys rule. I really to love you all, and I'm guessing that you are getting tired of all this love that I am proclaiming, but it really is true. ^^ Onto figure out what will happen next! *flies off to write chapter***

**Disclaimer****: I don't own Danny Phantom. Just Deliah. And this storyline. So sue me.**

**Chapter 12: Casper High**

Deliah looked around at the class as the English teacher, Mr. Lancer, told the students to be nice and all that bogus. Mr. Lancer then pointed her towards a seat near the window, which was nice, considering it was the only unoccupied seat. Quietly, she walked over to it, sat down, and pulled a notebook and pencil out of her backpack. She then heard Mr. Lancer talk about Shakespeare, and how they were going through _Romeo and Juliet_. Deliah groaned inwardly. She hated _Romeo and Juliet_. All it was was a feud between two families that resulted in a lot of dead people. Unnecessary dead people at that. Besides, she'd already read most of what was on the reading list. One of her past foster parents had been an English college professor.

Sighing, Deliah looked around the room again. She noticed that the guy who had stared at her when she first came in was looking at her again. He had thick, messy black hair, bright blue eyes, jeans, and a white T-shirt with a red logo at the chest. She gave him another small smile. Since she was staying at Casper High until the end of the year, and she wasn't going to be moving anytime soon, there was no sense in being cold. She only did that when she was sure that she would only last a few weeks. It had happened before. Deliah watched as the dark haired boy blinked in surprise before he grinned back.

A few minutes before the end of class, a muscular blonde boy walked up to her. He radiated confidence and cockiness. Deliah looked up from putting her stuff away warily. "Can I help you?" she asked him. The boy grinned at her.

"The name's Baxter. Dash Baxter. And I think that I can help _you_. Being new here, you're definitely going to want to know who to steer clear of." At this statement, Dash Baxter turned to stare at the boy who had been staring at her earlier. Following his gaze, Deliah cocked her head.

"Why? What's wrong with him?" she asked, seeing nothing wrong with the guy. Normal looking teenager. Well built, but not over the top like Dash Baxter. In fact, the staring guy looked a bit familiar. Her attention snapped back to the present when Dash began talking again. From his attitude, she got the idea that this guy wasn't the nicest to people who weren't on his social level.

"That's Danny Fenton. He's a dweeb, and a freak. An all around loser." Dash was saying. (Deliah saw that the titles that the jock was putting on him wasn't bothering the raven haired boy. If anything, he found them amusing. He simply rolled his eyes at Dash, and then cracked a smile, which she quickly returned." Dash then went on to tell her that he was a football star, and pointed out some other kids. Deliah really didn't like sports all that much, so she focused on matching the names to the face they belonged with.

There was Paulina Sanchez, who Deliah took instantly to be the queen bee of the school, with her long, wavy black hair, light blue Capri's, pink shirt that showed her midriff, and pink barrettes that kept her hair in place. White shoes were on her feet. She was beautiful, and spoke with a slight Hispanic accent. Her right hand woman and best friend; Star, was a blonde with orange hair clips that looked like flowers holding her hair back. She wore a white and orange T-shirt with a orange nine at the chest, red Capri's, and white shoes that were similar to Paulina's. She gave the new girl a friendly smile, which Deliah returned. The last person was as big and as muscular as Dash, but he looked Asian, with olive skin and dark hair. Dash introduced him as Kwan. Again, Deliah smiled at someone she'd never met before.

"Um, it's really great to meet all of you," she said to the four teenagers. "But I really need to go find my next class." She told them, smiling and walking away quickly so that a certain blonde jock wouldn't offer to show her to her next class. She didn't know why, but she felt that she knew Dash wasn't the nicest person. She didn't really trust him. She got the same feeling around Paulina, and similar, but not nearly as strong ones around Star and Kwan. Add that to the fact that Dash looked like and had the same last name as Ethan Baxter, and she wanted to get away from him. Yeah, he'd gone out of his way to say hi and introduce her to his friends, and she appreciated that. But she couldn't ignore how her gut tensed up whenever he was near her. So she walked up to Mr. Lancer, who let her leave class a few minutes early to find her next class. Deliah was studying her schedule when she heard a voice behind her.

"Hey." Deliah turned around to find the boy from before standing behind her, pulling the door shut. What had Dash called him? Lanny? Sammy? Danny! That was it. Danny Fenton. The guy who'd found Dash's insults amusing. "Mr. Lancer told me to help you to your next class." Danny said. Deliah blinked in surprise. She hadn't heard Mr. Lancer say anything, but she'd been busy looking at her schedule. Volunteering or not, she was grateful for some help from a friendly face. And even more so from someone who didn't make her gut twist.

"Thanks. I'm Deliah. Which you probably already knew."

The male teenager smiled. "And I'm Danny. Danny Fenton. But I think Dash told you that." Deliah smiled at him in return, and shrugged. She then glanced at her schedule.

"So, would you happen to know where I could find room 457? Trigonometry with Mrs. Jorgensen?" Deliah asked the blue eyed boy, who was looking at her with a mixture of disbelief and curiosity.

"Trigonometry? Are you sure they got your schedule right? You're a sophomore, and you're taking a college level course? He asked, walking around and peering over her shoulder at her schedule. Deliah smiled again and elbowed him lightly. Like how she sometimes knew what to do with her ghost powers, and that Paulina and Dash weren't the nicest people on the block, she got the feeling that this guy was a friend. She already got the feeling that she might be making her first real friend at Casper High School. Dash didn't count.

"I'm taking a bunch of advanced placement courses. The . . . school I went to before here had a bunch of high standards. So I ended up being ahead of most sophomores when I left." Deliah grimaced, and waved her schedule under Danny's nose and let her ever present smile return to her face. "I'm just another student. One who needs directions to find her next class." She added. Her counterpart rolled his eyes.

"Fine. Let's go. It's not far, and I think that my sister's taking that class. Not the same period as you, but still." Just then, the bell rang, and students started filling the halls, talking and opening their lockers. Danny led the new girl around some corners, past some classrooms and what looked like a gym, where it looked like the coach was yelling at some freshmen. When Danny saw where Deliah was looking, he grimaced. "That's Miss Tetslaff. She's the gym teacher. Martial background. She doesn't tolerate . . ." the blue eyed boy stopped talking to think for a moment. "She doesn't tolerate anyone who can't do what she assigns." He said after a moment of thought.

Deliah glanced over again at the teacher, who was a formidable looking woman. Blowing her bangs off her face, the teenager pulled her schedule out again and scanned it until she found what she was looking for. "It looks like I have her last." Deliah said, looking up at Danny, who was smiling at her again. Deliah liked his smile. It looked distantly familiar.

"Cool. That's when I have her too. Unfortunately, that's also when Dash, Paulina, and their crew have it." He said, laughing when he saw her smile disappear into an annoyed frown. "I can't believe you don't like those guys. Most new kids, and old, for that matter, would kill to have that kind of attention on their first day." Suddenly, the friendly sparkle in his eyes vanished to reveal a deep intensity that Deliah found dimly familiar. And then Danny asked her a question that made her stop to think. "Why aren't you?" And before she could fully think through what she was going to say, she was answering like she had been expecting the question.

"There are kids like that at every school. I personally would like to be liked for who I am, and not for what I wear. And . . . I know that this sounds crazy, but I have this feeling in my gut that tells me that they aren't the best people. I don't really trust them. Which sounds awful, since I just met them, but don't get me wrong, I'm sure they're wonderful people and all that, but . . . I don't really think they would like _me_, Deliah Preston. Does that make any sense?" the teenage girl asked her guide. To her surprise, he slowly nodded, a thoughtful look on his face. Deliah looked past his shoulder, where a sign with the words 'Mrs. Jorgensen; Trigonometry' on it. Jerking her head at it, she asked, "I take it that this is my destination?" Danny glanced behind him, surprised.

"Oh. Yeah. That's the place." He confirmed. "I guess I'll see you around." He said to her. Deliah smiled at what just might be her first real friend in . . . forever? It sure felt that way to the foster child. Then, taking a deep breath, she straightened her shoulders and walked into the classroom.

000000

Deliah walked through the halls of Casper High, excited with the fact that she only had one more period left. But, from what she had seen earlier, wasn't sure about the teacher. All her other classes had gone well. The teachers all seemed decent, and she had skipped lunch to do a bit of research on the ghost activity in this town at the library. Even though Amity Park was the most haunted city in the country, there had been no spectral activity during the day, making it a bit easier for her to focus. Not that she needed to. Even though she's only been on her online courses for two weeks, she was ahead of what was being taught in most of her classes. Add that to the fact that Arthur High over in Hickory was a private school with a highly rated academic field, and she found school to be a snap. Now all she had to do was make it through P.E., which was a required course here. Deliah hoped that the class wasn't doing anything sporty. Running and gymnastics she could do, and track and field came easy, but Deliah just did not like sports. She'd spent all of her past Super Bowl Sundays drawing, and taking advantage of the food. But there wasn't much that she could do as she walked up to the teacher she remembered from earlier. After explaining who she was, the teacher, who confirmed herself as Miss Tetslaff, had given her a gym uniform, (a pair of red athletic shorts and a white T-shirt with a red 'CH' logo at the chest) and had sent her off to the girls' locker room.

When Deliah saw that Miss Tetslaff expected her to change in front of a bunch of girls she didn't even know, she simply turned invisible in a secluded corner, and changed there. She had to admit; ghost powers did have their moments. Deliah quickly went to stand by the rest of the rest of the class, which was gathered around the teacher.

"Okay, listen up, class. Today we will be starting a new unit. You all need to know how to defend yourselves, should the occasion arise. So for the rest of the school year, which is around two months, we will be working on self-defense. We will work with and without weapons, though the best master can turn anything into a weapon." Miss Tetslaff told the class with a proud smile. Deliah barely prevented herself from rolling her eyes. But still, cocky teacher or not, this unit sounded . . . fun. Self-defense? She knew how to do that. Well. Deliah listened as the teacher paired the students off, telling them that their job was to 'disarm' their partner, and to keep it clean, since she really didn't want to have to clean up any blood. To Deliah's horror, she was paired with none other than the Casper High football star, Dash Baxter. He gave her a cocky grin as they walked up to the mat.

"Don't worry." He whispered in her ear. "I'll go easy on you."

Deliah decided to surprise him, and looked up at him with challenging eyes. "Don't do that. I love a challenge." She told him, walking over to her place before Dash could get a response out. When she turned around, she saw his slightly puzzled look. She gave him a small shrug, and then waited for the whistle. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Danny watching her with two people she recognized from some of her classes. She gave them a smile when she saw Danny's worried expression. Then the whistle sounded.

Deliah snapped her head back to look at Dash, who looked like he was stuck between wanting to impress everyone and not hurt her. After catching a glimpse of Paulina, who somehow managed to make the athletic shorts and T-shirt look fabulous, he cast Deliah an apologetic glance, then shrugged and narrowed his eyes at her, looking for a weak point. Deliah stayed where she was, letting Dash take his time. Finally, Dash threw a punch, which, to everyone's surprise, she easily dodged. Dash blinked in surprise, and threw a few more punches, of which he met only air with his fist. After a few more moments of this, the jock began to get frustrated. He was the king of Casper High School, and a girl could _not_ upstage him.

Deliah saw when the jock began to get frustrated, and smiled to herself. When you were angry, you tended to make mistakes. She may be new, but there was no way that she was going to let anyone beat her when she knew she could win. She could beat him without her newly found ghost powers, and that's exactly what she intended to do; win fairly.

So, Deliah began in a way that the class (and Dash, for that matter) didn't expect. She allowed Dash to take hold of her shoulder. Then, smiling sweetly at the blonde jock, she knocked his arm off her shoulder, took hold of it, and twisted it in a way that resulted in Dash kneeling on the floor in front of her. She smiled, took her foot, and pressed it to Dash's neck. Since she still had a firm grasp on his forearm, Dash had no choice but to lean forward until he was doing a face plant into the ground. Once Dash was in this final position, Deliah turned (with her foot still on the jock's neck and still holding his arm) to face the class. She took in their shocked expressions. Smiling at how it must have looked: a tall, muscular jock ending up on the floor after a few seconds of well timed movement by a petite girl. Deliah raised her eyes to Miss Tetslaff, who was frozen in surprise. Deliah returned her gaze to Dash, who was letting out faint whimpers at being in an uncomfortable position for so long. She then released his arm and took her foot off his neck. She walked around him and stuck out her hand to help him up.

"Are you okay?" she asked him, pulling him to his feet. He looked a bit dazed.

"Wha-? Oh. Yeah, I'm fine. I just . . . you do know that I was going easy on you, right?" he asked the raven haired girl. She shrugged, for his benefit.

"Yeah. I wondered why it was so easy." She said to him. The blonde jock blushed, and walked over to his friends, who were all talking among themselves.

The class then continued, with a pair attempting to 'disarm' each other until a whistle was blown. A few were interesting, like Paulina refusing to fight with anyone, claiming that 'pretty girls let other people fight for them'. (Deliah noticed that the Goth girl who was hanging around Danny a lot of the time clenched her fists when this was said.) At long last, Miss Tetslaff dismissed them so they could change back into their everyday apparel. Again, Deliah changed by turning herself invisible. Once she was back in her red slacks and blue long sleeved tee, she walked out of the locker room. To her surprise, she was met by Dash. He was smiling.

"Hey there, Delilah" he said to her, smiling dreamily. Deliah frowned at him.

"It's Deliah." She told him, walking away from the locker room doorway. Dash quickly fell into step alongside her.

"Huh?" was all he said, confusion tainting his voice. Deliah sighed, stopped, turned to face him, and looked him straight in the eye.

"My name? It's Deliah. Not Delilah. Deliah." She said, enunciating every syllable as clearly as she could, as if she were speaking to an incompetent child. Which, she got the distinct feeling, Dash was.

"Of course it is." Dash said, putting his arm around Deliah's shoulders. He didn't notice how she stiffened at the contact. "But I wanted to tell you that I think that it is totally hot to know how to fight," At these words, Deliah barely kept back her immediate impulse to gag. Instead, she escaped the place of discomfort that was Dash's arms by ducking over to pick up her backpack, where she deposited her schedule, and pulled it up onto her shoulders. Slowly, she turned to face the jock in the red letterman jacket, black T-shirt, and blue jeans. "I was wondering if you'd like to come with me and a few friends to the Nasty Burger. I can totally give you a ride." Dash told her, giving what he was sure was a winning smile.

"Um . . . thanks for the offer Dash, but I think I'll pass. I really need to get home, I have homework, and I promised to get home as soon as school lets out." The bell rang. "Which is right now." Deliah said, walking towards the gym doors. "And I don't need a ride!" she called behind her, where the blonde football star was watching her leave forlornly. Deliah let herself get swept up in the commotion that was the halls after the final bell, until she found an empty supply closet. Quietly, so no one would notice her, she stepped inside.

Once inside, she quickly called forth the white halo of power that transfigured her into her ghostly alter ego. While in her spectral form, Deliah's backpack vanished, but Deliah knew that it would reappear once she changed back. Silently, she turned intangible and flew out of the school, and over to the St. Alice Orphanage. Once she had arrived and changed back, she went inside, said hello to the intern, Mrs. Jackie, and went upstairs to her room. She quickly started on her homework. She hadn't lied about the homework, but she still got it all done rather quickly. Just as she closed her Chemistry book, her ghost sense went off. Immediately, Deliah hurried to her window. Nothing. Checking to make sure her door was closed, she muttered, "I'm Going Ghost." And flew out the window, her now bright green eyes looking anywhere for a sign of trouble.

***whew* That was tiring. Anyway, I hope you liked it and all that. I have finals this coming week, so I won't be able to write or update or anything like that until the 25****th****. So I ask you all to be patient, since I really do need to keep my grades up. Apparently they matter in the real world. *shrugs* I'm not thrilled, but I promise to update as soon as I possibly can. And news! This summer, my family is traveling to the Mississippi coast! We will get to eat legit shrimp! Yay-ness!**

**Anyway, thanks a ton for reading, and I hope to be up soon! Love to all!**

**Keep laughing!**


	13. A Walk in the Park

**Have I taken forever to get this up? Yes. Am I sorry? Yes. Will I try to make it up by giving you the next chapter? See below. Do I need to shut up and get to the story? I guess so. ; )**

**Disclaimer:**** Do I own Danny Phantom? No. *shakes fist at the sky* Are happy, FanFiction? I said it!**

**Chapter 13: A Walk in the Park**

Deliah looked around for the spectral activity that had triggered her ghost sense. It wasn't long before she saw what it was while flying over the park. There was a giant green dog that was . . . acting like an overgrown puppy. Which would have been fine, except for the fact that his puppy banter was destroying a large portion of the city park. Large craters the size of school buses dotted the ground, marking where he had previously dug. There were people screaming and running away from the spectral canine, which was good. The less people around, the better. Deliah stopped and surveyed the scene. Most of the people were gone, aside from some news crew. The dog was sniffing around, not really looking for trouble, just . . . looking for something? That's when Deliah noticed a small tag on the 'monster's collar. As a ghost, Deliah's eyesight and hearing were much better than any humans. So it wasn't hard to make out the dog tag.

The tag was small, obviously it hadn't gotten super sized along with the dog when he came out of the Ghost Zone. But the tag was one that Deliah was fairly familiar with; it was a tag that owners clipped onto their dog's collars once they passed obedience school. Which, if she was right, would be helpful. Ghosts were able to recall powerful memories from their life, even if they were collections of past emotions given a form by ectoplasm. Since the dog tag had come with him into the afterlife, she guessed that he remembered his training. _He'd better, or I'm in trouble._ Deliah thought to herself dryly. Taking in a deep breath, she planted her feet firmly on the ground, checked to make sure that the area was clear of any people, (the news crew had left after a few moments) stuck her first finger and thumb into her mouth, and let out a high, shrill whistle. At the sound of the note, the dog stopped what he was doing, and swiveled his ears around towards her. Then he spun around and raced at her.

When the overgrown canine was a few yards away, she stuck one gloved arm out in front of her, and said in a firm voice, "Heel." Immediately, the dog applied his breaks, coming to a halt a few feet away from her extended hand. He was looking down at her, his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth. Deliah smiled to herself. "Sit." She commanded in the same firm tone. The spectral dog dropped his rear to the ground. He cocked his head at her, and, to her surprise, shrank. The dog that was the size of a few school buses shrank down to the size of a normal puppy, complete with big eyes and a wagging tail. He was still the bright, ecto-plasmic green of a ghost, just . . . puppified. He was even cute, to some extent. Then, because Deliah Phantom didn't really know what else to do, she stooped down, and picked the spectral canine up, tucking him under one arm. The ghost in question started panting heavily.

Once the ghost puppy was situated, Deliah threw a quick glance around her. The park was deserted. Not even a chipmunk. Just as Deliah was about to jump into the air to fly the spectral beast-turned-pet off somewhere where he couldn't disturb anyone, when she heard a familiar voice behind her. "And where do you think you're going?" it asked. Surprised, Deliah spun around, and found herself greeted with none other than Danny Phantom. He was grinning, a smile that reached his eyes.

"I was going to take him somewhere that he wouldn't be a disturbance." The half ghost, half human hybrid told the famed ghost hero. "And where did you come from?" she asked him. "I thought that this place was deserted."

Phantom shrugged. "I got here a few seconds after you did. You looked like you had an idea, and I figured you could handle yourself. I was over there" He thumbed at a large sycamore tree a few hundred feet away "if you needed any help. Which you didn't." the white haired boy said, taking out a cylindrical tube made out of metal. It was mostly white and silver, with a few bright, neon stripes near the ends. It took the green eyed girl a few moments to notice that it resembled a common household item.

"Is that . . . a _thermos_?" she asked, shifting the spectral puppy to her other arm. Phantom smiled as he nodded.

"Yeah. This is the Fenton Thermos. It's able to catch ghosts. Once they're in here, I can put them back into the Ghost Zone." He said, taking the cap off. He looked over at her. "Oh. You might want to put him down and step away. I don't want to get you too." He told her. Deliah nodded, placed the green ghost dog down, and jumped into the air so she was hovering a good ten feet above the ghost hero and dog. Phantom pointed the thermos at the ghoul, and a blue aura started to surround the lid of the thermos. Not a moment later, a stream of light blue energy, much like a bright blue ecto-ray, shot out of the cylindrical container, surrounded the dog, and dragged him inside of it, where the dog, aura, and beam vanished, leaving Phantom only the job of capping the thermos, which he quickly did. He then put the Fenton Thermos away, and flew up to join her. But before he could open his mouth, Deliah asked her spectral counterpart something that had just occurred to her.

"You were watching me the entire time?" The white haired boy shrugged.

"Yeah. But, like I said, you didn't need any help. Except on where to put him. But you don't have a Fenton Thermos." He told her. Deliah furrowed her brow at him.

"Why do _you_ have a Fenton Thermos? Aren't the Fentons ghost hunters? Why would they let a ghost use their equipment? I've heard about you, and you've more than likely had that longer than the last couple of months since you saved the world from the Disastroid. Meaning either you stole it, or one of the Fentons gave it to you." She said to him, noticing how an uncomfortable expression crossed his face as she continued to speak. Once she finished talking, one of Phantom's gloved hands was rubbing the back of his neck, a gesture that Deliah found strangely familiar. Crossing her arms, she waited patiently for his answer. After a brief hesitation, she got what she wanted.

"Well, yeah. I've had the thermos ever since I started ghost fighting. But no, I didn't steal it. I-I guess you could say that Danny Fenton gave it to me. I don't steal. Which reminds me, do you? Steal, I mean." He asked, his voice not accusatory, but wary. Deliah's face became stony as she responded.

"No. I don't steal. Unless I have a really, _really_ good reason for it, that is a line I refuse to cross." Phantom put his hands up in the form of surrender.

"Okay, okay. I wasn't accusing you of anything. I just found something in the woods of Lake Eerie the night we . . . bumped into each other." Deliah's stony expression slipped off her face like water on a duck's back. _Could he have found . . ._ she managed to think before Phantom continued. "It was a sketchbook, belonging to someone by the name of Deliah Preston. (For some reason, the ghost hero's voice caught for a brief moment in his throat when he said Deliah's name.) You _aren't_ Deliah Preston, so I was wondering why you had it." The teenager in the black and silver jumpsuit said. Deliah took in a deep breath to calm herself before she answered.

"Oh. That. Well, I'm friends with Deliah. I met her during one of her foster homes." It wasn't a lie. Deliah _had_ gotten her spectral abilities while she was listed underneath Josh's foster care. To her surprise, Phantom questioned her further.

"Which one? And do you know where she is? I gave the sketchbook to a . . . friend, and he can't find her. Neither can I, for that matter." Deliah cocked her head.

"Which foster parent? If I remember right, it was . . . Josh Kelburn. The funny thing? He's a Guy in White." Deliah smiled to herself at the reaction of her fellow jump suited specter; open mouth, eyes the size of quarters, and the overall look of someone who was recently hit upside the head with a baseball bat. The she continued. "And how about this? I know Deliah, and she _loves_ her sketchbook. It's the one thing that has remained constant throughout her ever changing life. So . . . how about you tell _your_ friend to meet her here in . . . say, an hour?" she asked, hoping that she didn't sound to needy, or, even worse; desperate. To her relief, the male teenager nodded. For some reason, he almost looked as eager as she felt.

"Sure. I can do that. I'll . . ." he faltered for a moment before he continued. "I'll go tell my friend." Deliah gave him a nod before she turned to fly off. "Wait." Deliah turned again to face her floating compadre. "Now that you've done your job and gotten Deliah her sketch pad, are you going to take off?" Phantom asked her. She shrugged.

"I actually need to stay until summer. If that's okay. I can always just disappear if you need me to." She told him. Deliah Phantom watched as Phantom studied her for a moment.

"Nah. As weird as it is, I'm getting the feeling that you'll be needed around here. If that makes any sense." Deliah smiled at him to let him know that she understood. Phantom returned her smile, which turned into a chuckle after a moment. "Funny isn't it? Your name is Deliah, and you're friends with a Deliah. Small world, huh?" At these words, Deliah's smile became strained.

"Yeah. Weird, right? Well, I'd better go hunt Deliah _Preston_ down. Here, one hour." And with that, she spun around and jetted off, turning invisible a few moments later, to make sure Phantom didn't follow her.

After a few minutes of flying around town, the ghost-human hybrid circled back around towards the park. She wanted to make sure she didn't miss Phantom's friend. So she looked around, still invisible, and found a secluded grove of trees far off from anyone who might have come back, since the giant ghost dog was gone. She landed quietly, and quickly transformed.

Once she had returned to her normal human appearance, she stuck her head out of the grove to check and see if anyone had wandered over. No one. The raven haired girl let out a small sigh of relief that pushed her bangs out of her eyes. She then walked over to where the ghost dog had been causing havoc. It looked sparse. But, after a cursory glance around, the teenager saw a bench not too far away. She walked over, than plopped down. She settled into the worn out wood, and rested her elbows on her knees, then placed her head in her hands. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She had maybe forty-five minutes to kill before Phantom's friend came by with her sketch pad.

Deliah couldn't believe that Phantom had found it. He probably had noticed it after she flew away that night they had rammed into each other. But why hadn't he kept it? Why give it to someone else? _Probably because it's not very practical to carry around a thick sketchbook. _Deliah mused. But this friend of Phantom's must be a good friend. Ever since he saved the world from becoming a bunch of rock floating around the solar system, most people would sell it online or save it for a Phantom Phan Club meeting. A while back, Deliah had done some ghost research on the internet. She figured it might help since her new foster dad was a ghost-hunter. But w w w. p h a n t o m p h a n c l u b .com **(without the spaces. FanFiction won't let me put an actual website address on here.) **was a new level of scary. And led by Paulina Sanchez, which made the whole thing even more weird since Deliah had actually met her. The website was the place you went to if you were a die-hard 'phan', or to sell stuff _to_ them, since they paid some hefty prices for stuff that the famed ghost hero had signed, touched, or even remotely resembled. Again; scary.

The ghost powered girl lifted her head from her hands, and looked around. _I really should start wearing a watch. _She thought to herself as she looked around. Summer was nearing, and the days were getting longer, so it was harder to measure passing time in the evening.

Blowing her bangs out of her eyes, Deliah stood up from the wooden bench and stretched, stretching into as high and as straight a form as she could, attempting to 'grasp the sky' as she remembered a past gym teacher saying. Once she was done stretching, she noticed that one of her shoes was untied. Pushing back her long sleeves, she faced the bench, placed her foot on it, and then proceeded to tie up the laces. Once she was done with that, she did the same with her other shoe, making sure it was snug around her foot. Just as she was finishing, she heard a friendly voice behind her. "Deliah?" Deliah turned around to find, much to her surprise, Danny Fenton from school standing behind her, a thick notebook under his arm.

"Danny Fenton? _You're_ Phantom's friend?" she asked incredulously. When he nodded, she couldn't help but to laugh. "Wow. Ironic. The person Phantom trusts ends up being the son of world famous ghost hunters."

"Yeah." Danny chuckled, "and Phantom told _me_ that you met . . . another Deliah when you were with a ghost-hunting foster parent." Deliah smiled.

"Touché." She said, eyeing the maroon-covered sketchbook under the boy's arm. Following her gaze, he seemed to remember why he was there.

"Oh. Sorry." He said, handing her the sketch pad. Which she took gratefully. Then, to both Danny and Deliah's surprise, she gave him a quick hug. And to Deliah's even greater astonishment, he hugged her back. The embrace only lasted a few moments, but Deliah felt as if she had a deep connection with this boy, as if she knew he would help her if she ever needed it. When they pulled apart, they were both smiling.

"Thank you, Danny. You have no idea how much this sketchbook means to me. I've put so much work into this." She told him, looking down at the maroon cover.

"Yeah. I saw. The quality and detail work on all of these is amazing." Danny told her. Deliah froze.

"You looked?" she asked. He looked startled, and kind of confused at the question.

"Of course I looked, if you find a sketchbook, you're going to look inside." Deliah looked up at him.

"I thought Phantom was the one who found my sketch pad." At this statement, Danny's face was crossed by an expression that Deliah recognized as him thinking fast.

"Oh. He did, but he left the sketchbook on my desk. I found it there." Deliah looked at him, at those somehow familiar eyes. There was something he wasn't telling her, but if he didn't want to tell her, he didn't have to. So she shrugged, and sat back down on the bench. She opened her sketch pad to the first page, the one of the car side view. It had taken her eons to get it right. Danny sat down next to her, looking over her shoulder at the drawing, then at her. She felt his unspoken question in the air.

"I just . . . don't let people look at my sketchbook." She said quietly.

"Why?" Danny asked her. It wasn't a question he asked to be polite, Deliah got the feeling that he actually cared. "Your drawings are amazing. You _do_ know that, right?" Deliah shrugged and cast him a sidelong glance.

"I don't know. I guess it's because I don't like to draw attention to myself."

"Why not?"

"Well, you know from Phantom that I'm a foster kid, right?" when he nodded, she continued. "In some of my past foster homes, a lot of them in fact, if you drew attention to yourself, it wasn't the good kind. You were teased and caused all sorts of grief. I guess I've just gotten into the habit of being guarded. Attention has always equaled bad news for me." She told him. She chanced a glance at her listener, whose solemn expression made her smile. "Hey. I got used to it. Relax. But," she added, pleading with her eyes, "Could you please not tell anyone I'm in foster care? It's a ticket to being pushed around, and I really don't want to have to deal with that so soon at a new school." The boy next to her gave a reassuring smile.

"Your secret is safe with me." He said, standing up. He then stuck his hand out to help her up. Deliah took it, and he pulled her to her feet. He looked at her for a moment, and then he jerked his head in the direction towards the park's walkway. "Walk with me." He said. So Deliah took a hold of her sketchbook, and fell into step with him.

"So." Danny began. "What family are you under foster care for now?" he asked her. Deliah looked over at him. Why did he want to know? That question wasn't the world's most common conversation starter. But then, she got the feeling that the poor guy didn't know what else to talk about with a foster child. And she figured that she could cut him some slack, he did return her sketchbook after all.

"I'm not in one." She informed him. When he shot her a look of confusion, and, was that panic? She elaborated. "Josh Kelburn, the Guy in White, kind of threw me out. So I was . . . living off the streets for a couple of weeks. Long story short, I ended up getting admitted to Casper High, and I'm staying in Amity Park for the rest of the school year, at the St. Alice Orphanage. So . . . yeah. Not in foster care." She said to her walking partner. Danny nodded as he took in this information. When he looked over at her, his bright blue eyes were twinkling.

"You _lived_ with an actual Guy in White? How did that work out?" he asked, laughter in his voice. Looking at him, Deliah couldn't help but to laugh as well.

"Not well. The entire house was basically just a bunch of different shades of off-white. His car was white, and worst of all, his _diet_ was white." She told him. Danny's eyes widened, and he pretended to stumble in surprise.

"Really? Like, no color at _all_?" he asked. The blue eyed girl nodded.

"Oh yeah. And his menu was always the same. Every Monday, for example, was white bread toast with butter and skim milk for breakfast. Lunch was white turkey meat and light mayonnaise on white Wonder bread. Dinner consisted of white chicken breast with white potatoes, white radishes, and peeled apples. If we ever had dessert, it was vanilla ice cream with maple sauce, or a cream pie. And that was Monday. Every single Monday, that's what he had to eat." When Deliah looked over at Danny, his expression was one of horror. She smiled and continued to tell of how a Guy in White lived. After a while of listening, Danny managed to voice his horror.

"No way. Those losers actually have to _live_ white and everything?" at this point, Deliah couldn't help it; she burst out laughing, doubling over. After a few moments, Danny joined her.

Once their laughter had subsided, Danny got a strange look on his face. They were passing a big hill, and the boys' bright blue eyes kept flickering over to it. When Deliah asked him if anything was bothering him, she stopped walking completely.

"Hey." He said, sounding a bit hesitant. His female counterpart stopped and turned so that she was facing him. She cocked her head to one side, a silent question as to what was wrong. Seeing her face, he shook his head. "Oh no. Sorry. Nothing's wrong. I just wanted to show you something." He started walking over to the hill. Deliah hesitated in following him. Generally, following someone into a wooded area during sunset wasn't very smart. Especially when it was someone's first 'real' day in a new town.

But, Danny had been great so far. He had returned her sketchbook to her. He had helped her find her Trigonometry class earlier. He had given her a genuine smile at school. He had talked to her. He had listened. He had laughed with her. He was friends with Phantom. And for some reason she couldn't explain, she felt like she knew him. He was familiar to her, in some sort of forgotten way. She hadn't had anyone this close to her in . . . a long time. And on her first day at a new high school no less. So after taking in a deep breath, and tightening her grip on her sketch pad, she followed him.

Danny waited until she was next to him. He must have guessed her train of thought, because he said, "Deliah? I know I haven't given you many reasons to trust me, and that you've had to be on guard your entire life in order to survive. But I'm going to promise you that I'm going to get you to a point where you don't feel the need to protect yourself from me. I know I just met you, but I know that we can be good friends." He smiled, which Deliah returned. Danny continued up the hill, with Deliah only a step behind him.

Once they were at the top of the hill, Deliah snickered to herself as her walking partner swept his arm out; a gesture for her to go ahead. She stepped in front of him, only to stop short when she saw what was in front of her.

They were at the top of the hill, and below them was a lake. It wasn't large, the size of two or three football fields. Trees surrounded the banks. A small stream fed the lake. But that wasn't what made her stop. What made her stop was the fact that the sun was setting, and the expanse of water in front of her was reflecting the orange, pink, and yellow sky. It looked just like a post card. It was beautiful.

000000

Danny smiled when he saw his younger sister's reaction to the hill side view. He was absolutely positive that the girl a few steps in front of him was his twin sister. There was no doubt in his mind. The only differences in their appearances (aside from the gender differences) was the fact that he was maybe two inches taller. He watched as Deliah walked a few more steps forward and sat down. She was captivated. As had he, when he had first found it. Silently as a ghost, he sat down next to the raven haired girl, and they watched the sunset in companionable silence.

After a while, Deliah turned to him. "Thank you for sharing this with me." She said to him as she stood up. He quickly scrambled to his feet as well.

"No problem." He watched as she gazed around once more.

"I better get going. Mrs. Jackie will be wondering where I am." She said to him. She turned to leave, the stopped and turned back. "Thank you, Danny. For my sketchbook, being a friend, and being patient." She gave him a small smile, and then turned to walk back down the hill.

Danny smiled at her retreating figure. Once she was gone, he brought forth his rings of power that turned him into Danny Phantom. He leapt into the air, feeling more at ease then he had in a long time.

**You can probably tell that I had fun figuring out how a Guy in White would live. I also would like to say that the 'Phantom Phan Club' and its website are purely fictitious. They are not real as far as I'm aware. Thanks for reading, and I'm glad you've made it this far. And if you think we're close to being done, you are way wrong. Expect many more chapters. ^^**

**And since I have nothing better to do, I'll give you a bit of 'Behind the Scenes' info. Deliah's name was originally Talia. Then I decided that they (Danny and Deliah) should both have 'D' as the first initial. But then her last name was Trenton. Again, I wanted her last name to start with 'P', so Josh could (sort of) argue his case for giving her a jump suit with the Phantom logo on it.**

**Glad you've tuned in, and my thanks for doing so. Cookies to all!**

**Keep laughing.**


	14. A Secret Blowing Rescue

**Hey all. I'm back from my family vacation! Woot woot. Okay, before I go off to chapter 14, I want to first say that this is most definitely the longest chapter yet, so I hope that that makes up for how long it took me to write it. Secondly, this chapter introduces something that I made up, and I'm kind of nervous about it. You'll know what I'm talking about soon. But, anyway. I hope you like this chapter, as this was one of the two scenes that inspired the story.**

**Disclaimer****: You wouldn't by any chance happen to own Danny Phantom, would you? No? Well neither do I!**

**Chapter 14: A Secret Blowing Rescue**

Over the course of the next couple of weeks, Deliah found herself comfortable with her life. She got up early to help Mrs. Jackie cook breakfast for the younger kids, and sometimes helped get them ready for school. Naturally, sometimes she was called early to take care of a ghost. Sometimes, she ran into Phantom during these occurrences. After seeing her a few more times after the Cujo incident, (Phantom had told her the ghost-dog's name) he had lent her a Fenton Thermos, with instructions to leave it on Danny Fenton's windowsill when it was full, and to take it back the next night. After breakfast and helping out Mrs. Jackie, Deliah walked (or flew, depending on how late she was) to Casper High.

Since her first day, the popular crowd (mainly Dash) allowed her to hang with them. Since she was still technically 'new', the A-listers permitted her to flit from group to group. The more time the raven haired girl spent with them, the more she felt like they wouldn't be real friends in the long run. So she had begun to hang out with Danny and how two friends, Sam and Tucker.

Sam, she found, was a Goth, environment loving, vegetarian, passionate, a bit bossy, but fun and sweet in her own way. Tucker was meat and electronically crazed. He even offered to help her pick out a new laptop. Deliah was definitely looking forward to that. She hadn't talked to Tech in an absolute age. But the only afternoon Tucker had off this week was Tuesday, since he had town meetings with the city council and the like every other day.

But as happy as Deliah was with Sam, Tucker, and Danny, she mostly kept to herself. She was grateful for the friendship, but he and his friends were tormented whenever she went near them by none other than Dash Baxter. So she quickly learned to keep her distance during school hours. Her classes were relatively easy, and usually she spent her lunch period in either the library or in one of the trees in the student courtyard. Some might find this sort of high school life as a form of torture, but for the girl with the ability to change her hair from black to white, it was a situation she was happy to be in. Sometimes Danny visited her at St. Alice's, and he even brought Tucker and Sam, who both seemed curious about it.

One day, after she finished her homework and chores, she was lying on her bed, reading one of the books she had found at the library during one of her lunch breaks. Then, without warning, a wave of panic overcame her. The feeling came from the place in her gut where she sometimes got the feeling that she knew exactly what to do and how to do it when it came to using her ghost powers. But this feeling was different. It practically demanded her to jump out the window and Go Ghost, which is what she did after a moments' hesitation. As she floated near her bedroom window, she looked around for some sort of trouble. She didn't see anything, but the feeling in her gut didn't go away. In fact, it was telling her to hurry. So she closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, and jetted off in the direction that she seemed to be getting the most powerful waves from.

As she was speeding through the sky, she pushed her bangs out of her face and let her bright, neon green eyes rove along the streets, looking for anything that might be out of place. Suddenly, the wind changed directions, and she heard some screams coming from a group of buildings not too far away. After another moment of listening, she managed to pinpoint the general location of all the commotion. A plaza of business buildings: the Crosswire Plaza. Deliah quickly flew higher so she could have a better bird's eye view of what was going on. When she saw what was below her, her blood ran cold.

There was a large crowd in the plaza, but a wide bubble of space was bare, leaving two figures out in the open. One, she recognized as the hunter from the Ghost Zone; Skulker. He was facing the other, smaller figure, with all sorts of guns and weaponry sticking out of his suit. Since the female ghost-human hybrid was so high up, it took a moment for her to recognize who it was. She felt her stomach drop down to her flickering, ghostly tail when she saw who it was that Skulker was facing.

"_Danny_."

000000

_Okay._ Danny thought to himself as he pressed himself up against the building wall. _This is _not_ good. _He had been walking to the movie theater from the mall, and had decided to take a shortcut through Crosswire Plaza. _Some shortcut._ He thought dryly. Unknown to Danny at the time, Skulker had been waiting for him. But once his ghost sense had gone off, the suited specter had flown around, blocking any streets, building entrances, or alleys that Danny could duck into to Go Ghost with some sort of ecto-plasmic shield. This also prevented any of the pedestrians from being able to escape. This was officially bad. And, as Murphy's Law would have it, it got worse. **(Murphy's Law basically states that if anything bad can happen, it will.)**

After a few minutes of 'playing' with the townspeople, Skulker spotted Danny in the crowd. A malicious smile crossed his face. "Ah." He said, "Even though it is unintended, the hunt never ceases." A few people looked around to try to figure out who the hunter was talking to, and shot him confused expressions when their gazes reached Danny. But they quickly backed away from him when the 'Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter' pointed all of his guns and weaponry at the raven haired teenager. Danny didn't know that he had been backing up until his back had hit the wall of an office building. At this point, Danny saw two options; let Skulker smoke him, (He'd survive. Being half ghost, he had the amazing ability to heal at a rapid rate, he'd just need a few days in the hospital, maybe a week.) or change into Danny Phantom and blow his secret. Valerie had been sick the past few days, so she wasn't here to help out, and he had no idea where Deliah _Phantom_ was during the day. Skulker, seeing the teenager's dilemma, laughed. "No one to help you now, Whelp." He said, as the missiles attached to his arms and shoulders left their resting places and shot straight for the blue eyed teenager. Danny had just enough time to squeeze his eyes shut and think _I'm a goner. _Before the missiles reached him. He wasn't going to blow his secret. And he most certainly wasn't going to give Skulker the satisfaction of being the one who unveiled his secret to the world. He held his breath, waiting for the missiles to come. Surprisingly, he heard the explosion, but he didn't feel anything. When he heard everyone in the plaza (including Skulker) gasp in surprise, he peeked through his eyelids. What he saw made his jaw drop.

The rocket propelled grenade had indeed collided with something, and the smoke was still clearing. Through the smoke, however, Danny could see what looked like a green ghost shield a few feet in front of him. As he watched, it flickered and then vanished. For a moment, he was scared that _he_ had created the ghost shield without meaning to. That moment of panic passed as he noticed a figure standing directly in front of him. It took a moment for Danny to place the figure, but once the smoke cleared a bit more, he couldn't help but to say the figure's name out loud. "Deliah?" The spectral teenager looked over her shoulder at him. Her eyes and fists were glowing. His expression must have been good, because she gave him a small smile.

"Are you alright?" she asked him. Eyes wide, he nodded. Satisfied, she turned to face Skulker, who was looking dumb-struck as the last of the smoke cleared away. After a moment, his surprise turned to anger.

"No one is allowed to interfere with the hunt, girl." Skulker said to the black and white suited teen. "It is a sacred art between the hunter and his prey. Leave before I hang your hide on my wall." He said dangerously. The adolescent girl, however, didn't seem fazed.

"Really?" Deliah asked, her voice as steely as a drill sergeants'. "Then I'd love to participate. You start running, or flying for that matter, and I'll work on my aim." Danny watched in surprise as Deliah Phantom raised one of her gloved hands, an ecto charge building up in her palm. Skulker looked annoyed.

"You think that you understand the ways of the hunt, young whelp? I should mount your head on my wall right now, for making the assumptions that I, Skulker, the Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter, could be hunted." He growled. At this, to everyone's surprise, the girl laughed.

"The 'Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter'? Please. Haven't you been trying to catch Danny Phantom for, what? The past two years or so? Have you _ever_ come out victorious?" she asked, mirth still in her eyes and voice. Apparently, the young specter's words hit a nerve in the armored hunter's metallic hide. Danny (and the crowd) watched as Skulker's embarrassment slowly grew to anger as Deliah continued to chuckle under her breath. Finally, he snapped.

"You think that you are so much better than me? Well, I would start running, Ghost Child. I've set my sights on a new prey." The robotic face smiled a dreadful smile. Deliah looked a bit uneasy as the hunter pulled a small canister out of one of his many pockets on his belt. Then, with a flick of his wrist, he threw the canister on the ground. Immediately, a hissing sound was heard, and one could see a gas escaping from the container. People looked among each other warily. Then, all of a sudden, Danny knew what it was.

"Get out!" he shouted. "It's a gas that makes you become paralyzed if you inhale it!" It took a few moments for all of the pedestrians to process his statement. But once they figured out that the son of world famous ghost hunters wasn't kidding, they began to scream and tried to leave the plaza. But, by then, the gas had spread and most of the townspeople had inhaled some of it. So it wasn't much of a surprise when most people ceased movement after a few paces. What _did_ surprise Danny was that he found that he himself was immobile. The gas had gotten to him. Then, because he had no other alternative, he watched Deliah Phantom. She was hovering a good three feet off the pavement, looking at Skulker with a cross expression.

"Why did you make it so everyone couldn't move? What does that even accomplish?" she asked the hunter curiously. The said ghoul frowned at her.

"So they can all watch as I capture you, that way no one will ever doubt that I, Skulker, really am the Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter." He told her. Deliah, however, looked bored.

"Um, not to be rude or anything, but do you have to say that you're the 'Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter' all the time? It's getting kind of old." She told the ghost. Skulker appeared to be getting more annoyed and angry the more Deliah talked.

"It doesn't matter what _you_ think, Ghost Child, for soon, your pelt will be mounted on my wall." Skulker said, bringing out some rather large guns. Danny saw Deliah glance around her, noticing how easy it would be to accidentally hit a nearby citizen. A look crossed her face that Danny found hauntingly familiar.

"You'll have to actually catch me in order for that to happen, won't you?" she asked the hunter before she shot up into the sky. Skulker growled to himself before he followed her. Danny prayed that she knew what she was doing. She'd only been around Amity Park for a few weeks, and had been fighting ghosts (as far as he was aware of) around as long. Skulker was a powerful foe, and the fact that he had advanced weaponry made him all the more difficult for an inexperienced opponent. And the look on the young Phantom's face had a look that was so familiar; it made Danny almost angry that he couldn't place it. Then, unwillingly, he watched the battle above his head, wishing that he could help.

000000

Deliah gave Skulker her best poker face. She knew that she should have been freaking out, fighting a ghost that a) had a rather large artillery, and b) that she recognized from her Ghost Zone attack. Luckily, he didn't seem to remember her. To which she was grateful. In all honesty, she wasn't very sure she could beat Skulker. She had just gotten the feeling in her gut that she could do this. It was like the feeling she sometimes got where she all of a sudden knew what to do with her ghost powers, but her gut feeling was also telling her that she could do it. So she glared at the metal suited hunter, determined to stall him until Phantom showed up.

Skulker seemed to dimly recognize her look of scorn, but appeared to ignore it. Instead of saying anything, he pointed one of his arms at her, and a rather large gun popped out. Deliah's eyes widened, but managed to dodge the huge volley of shots that he fired at her. Then, so expertly she was almost surprised, she tossed a large amount of plasma beams back at the 'famed' hunter. One of them hit him, and that made him all the more angry. The battle ensued.

As the fight progressed, Deliah found herself slipping into a state of mind that she didn't know she had. Part of it was the now-familiar feeling that she had done everything before, but the rest was a mix of her past of martial arts and gymnastics. It wasn't like she was hitting autopilot in her brain, it was like she was doing something she did on a regular basis, dodging and firing plasma beams and charges expertly, looking for weak points in her opponent's armor, and anticipating his next move, as Master Caruthers had pounded into her all those years ago. And after a few minutes of continuous fighting, (and, interestingly enough, witty banter) Deliah began to notice something.

"It's a hands-only long distance style." She murmured to herself in surprise. The fighting style that her 'know-how instinct' preferred to use was a technique that only used her hands to fire plasma beams, which confused her. She could fire ecto-rays from her eyes and feet, along with her hands. So how come whenever she didn't know what to do, and fell back on her instincts, she never ended up taking advantage of her four other firing points? It made no sense, and confused her. Another interesting thing about her 'know-how instinct' was the fighting style itself. Deliah's personal fighting style was about evasion and using her opponent's own strength against them more than anything else. Her 'instinct' style, however, was more of a type where she had to rely on her own strength. Not that it was a problem. Since her Ghost Zone attack, her strength that increased to best any humans', (and some ghosts) so she had adapted her style to fit her new strengths. But this 'instinct' style was a bit more head on then what Deliah was used to. Still, she was growing more confident, and Skulker was hitting her less and less with his plasmic weaponry.

Skulker seemed to come to a similar conclusion, as he stopped exchanging witty banter with her. His facial expression changed from annoyed to slightly frustrated. Then, much to Deliah's surprise and chagrin, he tried to suck her into something that she could only assume was his version of a Fenton Thermos. Skulker also managed to put some sort of shields around her that she knew she couldn't phase through. Thinking quickly, she flew towards the Fenton Thermos rip-off, (which seemed to surprise the gun-using ghoul) and at the last second, shot plasma beams out of her hands. Her hands were at her sides, with the palms perpendicular to the ground. The momentum pushed her out of the suction area of Skulker's Ghost Trapper Thing. She kept a steady stream coming from her hands until she got enough momentum built up, ceased fire, flipped over in the air towards the 'Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter', charged up both of her feet with an ecto-ray, and brought her feet down on top of the hunter, who promptly crumpled underneath the impact, and fell out of the sky. Deliah smiled to herself as she landed around twenty feet in front of him, standing, interestingly enough, in front of Danny Fenton once again. She cast him a glance over her shoulder to check to see if he was still okay. Even thought he couldn't move, he looked impressed. That expression, along with how well she was doing, brought and unexpected thought to her brain. _I'm doing well_. Then, of course, Skulker had to attempt another rocket propelled grenade attack. Which was bad, considering how many people were frozen in the plaza. _In fact, _Deliah noted_. Skulker's the only one in an area without anyone around for about fifteen feet or so. _Then, Deliah knew what she had to do. It was risky, since she'd only seen what she had in mind on TV, and we all know how realistic _that_ is. But . . . if she remembered correctly from one of Josh's many weapon and artillery rants, missiles exploded on impact, not on touch.

So, with this conclusion in mind, she stood her ground as Skulker fired the explosive projectile at her. She stayed as still as the paralyzed people around her, then, at the last second, she side-stepped, so that the missile would zoom right past her. But was it passed, with un-human-like reflexes, she grabbed the projectile as it flew past her, spun around with the missile in tow, and let it go once she was facing the hunter again. Needless to say, he was surprised, and he was hit by his own weapon. Once the dust and smoke had cleared, (no living human had been hurt) the armored hunter was absolutely livid. He was short circuiting out all over on the suit, and several lights were blinking, like a red one that someone would normally associate with a warning. Deliah even caught a glimpse of a flashing 'overload' light on one of the suit's arms. But, suit failure or not, Skulker looked terrifying.

"Very well, Ghost Child." He said coldly. "I didn't want to have to do this, but you have left me no alternative." Skulker visibly tensed, and a small capsule the size of a tube of lipstick popped out of his armored chest. The hunter squeezed it, and the canister shattered. Deliah waited in her martial arts stance, waiting for chaos to ensue. What happened surprised her.

The wind had picked up, and was spreading the odor of whatever was in the capsule. It smelled like . . . motor oil. It wasn't long until the entire Crosswire Plaza stunk of it. Deliah kept her bright green eyes of Skulker, who wasn't looking away from her either. Then, of course, something happened that the Danny Phantom look-alike was not expecting: the people started to move.

Wide-eyed, Deliah looked around. People were moving. Some brought their hands to their faces to attempt to block the putrid aroma, some fell over, since their last movement had been one of trying to run away. After a few moments of watching in disbelief, Deliah felt something warm on her shoulder. Turning her head, she saw that it was someone's hand. Looking up the arm and into the face, Deliah saw that it was Danny. He met her eyes for a moment, and then looked ahead to where Skulker was standing. Deliah followed the teenager's gaze.

"What do you think he's up to?" Danny asked her. Deliah shrugged, eyeballing the hunter warily. _No one makes a move like that unless they have a plan._ She thought. As she was thinking this, she saw a few pedestrians slip out of the plaza, (at some point during the aerial fight, the shields blocking the exits to the plaza had dissipated) unnoticed by the now dented armored ghost with the green flaming Mohawk. In fact, Skulker didn't seem to notice much of anything. Now large groups of people were running out onto the streets and nearby alleyways. The hunter's eyes were looking off into an unseen world, and that bothered the half human-ghost hybrid. If you were in the middle of a fight, you didn't just up and decide to let all of your hostages go. And zoning out randomly? Big no-no. But, if he wanted to make it easier for her, who was she to complain? She reached behind her to grab her Fenton Thermos. Wrong move. Her fingertips had just touched the metal side of the capsule when Skulker's ectoplasm green eyes snapped up to her face. His eyes flickered over to Danny, then back to her face. Then, he spoke.

"I will not rest until I have completed my hunt." He said to her. "You are a worthy opponent, so I will grant you the honor of being the first to experience my newest weapon." He said smugly. Deliah, however, quirked an eyebrow at him and tilted her head.

"Are you sure you want to do that? You don't look like you have much of anything left in you." She said. The hunter shrugged off her comment.

"That's why I just took the time to do a power charge up, Ghost Child. This attack is only meant to be used as a last resort, but I'll make an exception for you, Whelp." Skulker said with a maniac grin that made Deliah uneasy. Skulker then looked around, and seemed surprised by the number, or lack of people around him. "Huh. I guess my awareness diminishes a lot whenever I go into power charge mode." He muttered. Then, without warning, the 'S' on Skulker's belt started to glow. The glow began to get bright. Really bright. It was so bright that Deliah (and Danny, for that matter) had to put up an arm to shield their eyes. After a moment, the light died, and both of the teenagers put their arms down. After looking around, Deliah saw that nothing had happened. She did notice that everyone was gone from the plaza aside from Danny, her, and Skulker, who was still grinning like a maniac, which was making her wary. Then, very dramatically, he pressed a button on his arm.

000000

Danny watched as Skulker pressed the button on his arm. He was nervous. Skulker had never said _anything_ to him about a last resort attack before. Yeah, Deliah Phantom had done well. _Really_ well, in fact. Her fighting style was a lot like his at times, and using the momentum from her ghost ray to get out of a suction trap thing was sheer genius. But now, Skulker had a crazed look in his eyes. Deliah's flip around kick thing must have been more powerful than he had first suspected. (It had looked like an ordinary kick to him. Maybe she had hit some sort of shut-down focal point?) Should he Go Ghost to help out? Was this situation worth that? He didn't know who might be looking down from one of the many tall business buildings surrounding the plaza.

"Danny." Deliah's voice was low and deadly serious as she voiced his name and brought him out of his thoughts. He turned his eyes from Skulker to her. "Get behind me. Now." She told him, not taking her eyes off the short-circuiting ghoul. Danny was about to object, but stopped himself. As weird as it sounded, something deep inside his gut told him to listen to the black and silver suited specter. So he did. And he watched as Skulker laughed at her as small cannon-like guns popped out of his waist.

"You think that you can best me, Whelp?" he asked incredulously. The small guns attached to his waist began to whir and beep. Deliah tensed, and deepened her martial arts stance. Her fists began to glow with the familiar aura of a ghost ray. Danny turned his eyes back to Skulker. The said ghost smiled, and let the cannons spew their fire.

Literally. They spewed actual _fire_. The fire, Danny knew, (and recognized) was ectoplasmic fire. It was bright green, from the Ghost Zone, and almost impossible to extinguish. Water didn't work, and it move faster than normal fire, which was pretty fast to begin with. Danny didn't think that Deliah had any ice powers, which was the only way Danny knew how to get rid of the green flames. He had just opened his mouth to warn the teenaged Phantom when, to his surprise, he was thrown back against a business building. When he looked up, he saw that he was surrounded by an ectoplasmic green ghost shield. He hadn't made it, so that meant that . . .

Danny squinted through the shield, and what he saw made his stomach churn. The spot where he and Deliah had been standing a moment ago was now a swirling mass of fire. Danny looked up and saw no sign of the Danny Phantom look-alike hovering above the inferno. Danny felt a wall of panic build up inside of him. He pressed his hands up against the shield, trying to see something, anything. Then, something in Danny's mind clicked.

Danny sat back and examined the ghost shield carefully. Actually, he didn't need to examine much. Just that it was still there. Usually, when a ghost lost concentration, or was hit by a powerful attack, any ghost shield they might have put up dissipated within a few seconds of losing concentration or being hit. The few times Danny had encountered ectoplasmic fire, shields did work, but only for a short time. After a while, they acted like an acid. So the shield that Deliah had thrown up to protect Danny was working just fine, since he wasn't getting touched by the fire very much. But with the large inferno surrounding her, no ghost shield could last longer than a few seconds. So how was Deliah keeping up such a steady shield? Even when Danny pounded on it with some of his ghostly enhanced strength, it didn't budge.

Not knowing what else to do, (and because he was curious) Danny peered through the ghost shield again. It had been around a minute since Deliah had thrown him against the business building wall and Skulker had gone all _Torched_ on the world. Fortunately for Danny, he was at an angle where he could see both Skulker and the fire ball. And it looked like Skulker had run out of fire to spew. Unfortunately, ectoplasmic fire was able to burn on almost anything, since there wasn't much floating around in the Ghost Zone that could burn.

After a few seconds of Skulker's literal 'cease fire', the ghost shield around Danny flickered off. Cautiously, he stepped forward. Was it him, or was the inferno growing . . . smaller? Danny cast Skulker a confused look, and, for once, the hunter looked as confounded as he did. They turned their eyes back to the now (most definitely) shrinking fire ball. _Unless she's sucking up the fire into the thermos, I don't see how she could have survived that. _Danny thought to himself. The green fire that, strangely enough, resembled Skulker's Mohawk continued to get smaller. It wasn't long until the silhouette of a teenage girl was visible. The figure had her arms up in front of her, with her wrists crossed in front of her face, making an 'X'. Nothing out of the ordinary about that. The out of the ordinary thing? The fire was dying down. But it was dying down _into_ the girl with her eyes squeezed shut. The fire was literally streaming into her body. It was also losing its color. The fire that was closest to her body looked almost yellow instead of green. Deliah didn't seem to notice, but it was hard for the blue eyed adolescent male and the armored hunter not to notice.

Once all the fire had been . . . absorbed, Deliah peeked through one eye, and then opened the other. Seeing both Skulker and Danny's gob smacked expressions, she looked around after dropping her arms. Seeing nothing, she wordlessly pulled out her Fenton Thermos and sucked Skulker in, who didn't even put up a fight. Once the hunter was inside, she capped the canister, walked over to Danny, and handed it to him. He took it, watching her. She had no scorch marks or burns on her at all. She didn't even smell like smoke. Finally, she broke the silence.

"Are you okay?" the question startled Danny. He should ask if _she_ was alright.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I-I just was wondering how you did that."

Deliah looked mildly confused. "How I did what, exactly?"

"Stood in the middle of that giant ball of ectoplasmic fire." He told her. When she gave him a look that said _And the big deal with that is?,_ he examined her once again. No visible sign that she had just been through a fire. "That fire that Skulker fired at you? That was ectoplasmic fire. Fire that's only found in the Ghost Zone. It's almost impossible to extinguish, and it can burn on almost anything. It . . . disappeared around you. Almost like you _absorbed_ it. You didn't put up a ghost shield, did you?"

Deliah blinked, as if realizing that what she had done was not normal, even for a ghost. "No. I didn't. I put one up around you, and then pushed you over against the office building. Then I just, I don't know. I put my arms up in front of me and waited for the pain to come. I felt a lot of heat and hot air around me, and heard what sounded like wind, but that was it. After a while, I heard the wind die down, so I took away your shield thing. Then, after a little bit, the heat and all that went away. So I opened my eyes, and I think you know the rest." She looked up into Danny's face, confusion evident on her features. Danny held her gaze for a few moments, until Deliah let out a long puff of air that moved her bangs. She averted her eyes.

"Well," she said. "I don't know what happened. But I'm glad I got to help out. I'm surprised that Phantom hasn't shown up, but I hope I did his theme colors justice." She jumped into the air. She was just about to fly off when Danny said something to her.

"Hey. For what it's worth, I think you handled that much better then Phantom could." Danny said, thinking back to the green fire.

Deliah Phantom smiled at him. "I don't know about that." She said. "But thank you." Then she jetted off.

Danny looked down and fingered the Fenton Thermos in his hands. What was with the fire-absorption thing? No one he knew could do anything even remotely similar. And it wasn't like Skulker to use an attack like that. Fire burned, so it wasn't the best to use on something that you wanted mounted on a wall. The good thing was, no one had been hurt. Taking a deep breath, Danny began to walk home.

**Wow. That took a while to type up. So, please let me know what you think. I feel pretty iffy on the 'ectoplasmic fire' thing. I made it up, so if you think that there's no way Butch Hartman would think of something like that; there is a very good reason you are thinking those thoughts.**

**I really hope you liked it! Until next time,**

**-Alex**


	15. Confrontations and a Reconnection

**Hey everyone. Before you all start to throw rotten vegetables at me, let me first say: I. Got. A. JOB! WOO-HOO! I am very excited by this fact, even though it seriously cuts into my time. Not to mention that it's nearly a 45 minute drive away…but what are ya gonna do? Still, I'm sorry that I took so long. I had almost no motivation to get this up, and I really didn't know what was going to happen next. But I figured I should plug a few key players back in that have been in the background for a while. I should probably let you do your reading . . .**

**Disclaimer****: Hello! If any of you people happens to be Butch Hartman, let me know. Maybe he can sell Danny Phantom to me! I have . . . *looks through pockets* 16 cents! Yes? No? Dang it. Oh well. Can't blame me for not trying. Oh, and another thing I don't own? The Minutemen. I stole a line from the movie, so just to make sure that I don't get sued for that, on with the story!**

**Chapter 15: Confrontations and a Reconnection**

Over the course of the next couple of days, the news that a new Phantom had saved the day a Crosswire Plaza spread like a wildfire. It turned out; someone from one of the office buildings had videotaped the entire encounter, so now everyone knew that there was a female Phantom look-alike, even if her name wasn't known. Phantom himself made one comment; only saying that he trusted the 'new ghost' and that she would reveal herself publicly when she wanted to. While Deliah appreciated Phantom for not exposing her, she was a bit rattled. Because of the way the teenaged ghost had worded his statement, it meant that eventually, she would have to reveal herself. But that was a bridge that she would cross when she got to it.

Deliah sighed as she pushed her bangs out of her face. It was nearing the end of the school day, and Dash had demanded (in a very loud voice so everyone would over hear) during lunch that he and the other A listers had to talk with her after school. Judging by the buzz she'd been hearing, there was going to be quite a crowd. Deliah was just hoping that Dash wasn't going to ask her out. Again. But by using (as he put it) 'crowd pressure'; he probably thought that she might relent.

In a way, Deliah kind of felt sorry for the dim witted jock. He'd spent most of his high school career dating Paulina, who had unofficially dumped him not too long after the new infamous Disastroid incident, to attempt a pursuit of the hero; Danny Phantom. Dash, as she told people when asked, was just a back up. The Latina's efforts had been fruitless, needless to say. And the fact that Deliah was hanging out with the A listers less and less couldn't help the situation any, either.

_Well_, Deliah thought tiredly_. Whatever it is, I'm sure it's a big deal to Dash. And that the majority of the Casper High School student body will be watching. _She added grimly. Deliah grinanced as she knocked the legs out from underneath Kwan. Why Miss Tetslaff kept insisting on pairing her with big, burly, athletic guys she didn't get. Especially when it was clear that neither of them had any 'personal defense' background. (past shoving kids into lockers and football tackle techniques) But, Deliah conceded, they were the ones that were the most adept to taking heavy blows. Still, knock football players down and off their feet was only amusing for so long.

But he simply got up without her help. He didn't even smile, which struck her as strange. True, Kwan didn't hang around her as much as Dash did, but he was always friendly towards her.

_Something tells me that this 'talk' after school isn't going to me the most pleasant conversation ever._ As the blue eyed adolescent walked out of the girls' locker room, and then the gym, she saw a small crowd of A listers. Once they spotted her, they all (simultaneously) frowned and walked away. While some high schoolers might find this sort of treatment devastating, Deliah found herself relieved by it. She didn't have to do the entire 'smile until your cheeks hurt, giggle like a brain dead shallow robot, and pretend to like the people that surround you' thing. Being a part of the A lister crowd was exhausting, and not in the satisfying kind of way. So Deliah was more than happy to walk to her locker alone. But, once she closed her locker door, she was surprised to find someone leaning against the locker next to hers.

"Danny?" she asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

The boy in question shrugged. "I just wanted to check and make sure that you were ready." He told her. When all he got from his raven haired counterpart was a perplexed expression, he elaborated. "Outside? Dash and most of the other popular kids are out by the front steps. With pretty much the rest of the school."

Deliah blinked. "Wow. What is it with the people around here? Do you guys have _no_ means of entertainment?" Danny gave her a strange look before he burst out laughing.

"You've got a point." He said, falling into step beside her as she began making her way to the schools' front doors. They both stopped when they reached the big double doors that led outside. Danny turned towards her once again. "You ready? Whatever it is out there, it could get ugly." Deliah smiled at him and rolled her eyes.

"Please." She said. "These past couple of weeks, I've knocked Dash, Kwan, and a bunch of other football players off of their feet so many times without really trying. I think I can handle them. And anyway, even if most of the student body is out there, I'm sure I'll manage to get out. Crowds are very confusing places to be." She said, smiling. Danny returned her smile, and opened the door for her, gesturing for her to go on outside. Keeping a smile on her face, she stepped through the doorway, with Danny following her. Even though she was expecting it, she stopped short when she saw just how many people were gathered in front of Casper High.

Danny had been right when he had said the _entire student body_. Most of the sophomore class was there. Along with a ton of other people that Deliah didn't recognize. Her smile quickly became strained. Throughout most of her life, attention had almost never been a good thing. So she had (unintentionally) trained herself to get away from crowds, and to fear them. She wasn't good in front of people. No, scratch that. She wasn't good under a lot of attention. So having an entire high school population (or something close to it) stare at her? Not a good idea. Deliah was just about to go into a (very mild) panic attack when she felt something familiar on her right shoulder. Glancing behind her, she saw Danny's hand resting on her right shoulder. She blinked gratefully at him, her strained smile still in place. _It's nice to know that I have a friend in both Phantom and human form. _She thought to herself, thinking back to when he had supported her when she faced Skulker earlier that week. Taking in a deep breath, Deliah walked down the school steps. Students silently parted for her, which she found both handy, and exceedingly creepy. After she glanced behind her, she found that Danny was still following her, and that helped ease what nerves she had. In truth, she wasn't that nervous about whatever it was that Dash and all of the other popular kids had to say to her. Just the attention. _Call me quirky_. She thought dryly.

It wasn't long before Deliah was approaching Dash. He had his arms crossed, a frown ruining his athletic and jockish features that were considered by many to be handsome. The fact that Danny was following her seemed to deepen the scowl on his face. He made no move to say hello or to hit on her, which Deliah found out of the ordinary. After a few moments of awkward silence, Deliah realized that she was probably supposed to say something.

"Um . . . hi Dash." She said, looking around at all the students that apparently needed to get a hobby. "What did you want to talk about?" she asked, trying to act like there was nothing wrong or strange happening. Dash narrowed his eyes at her.

"It's time for you to choose, Deliah." He told her. When he saw her raise an eyebrow, he expanded on his previous statement. "You've been at Casper High for a month. We, the A listers, have let you wander around from group to group, which I personally don't get, since you have the chance to be friends with _us_." A look of annoyance crossed his features, but he continued. "So, today you have to publicly accept to be with us, and join the popular ranks. This also means that you aren't supposed to hang out with anyone who isn't worthy of our time." At these words, Dash's eyes flickered past Deliah and over to Danny. Deliah looked over as well and saw Danny stiffen. At the same time, she felt a faint twist in her gut, like she was nervous for someone who might make a mistake or something. She pushed the feeling away, and turned back to face the blond jock. She could deal with any intestinal problems she might have gotten from lunch later. She crossed her arms.

"And if I don't want to 'publicly accept' your friendship?" she inquired, making quote marks in the air with her fingers before crossing her arms once again. Dash looked puzzled with her question.

"Uh . . . then you would never be able to hang out with us. You'd be throwing away a life of social ease and comfort." He said, as if it were blatantly obvious.

Once again, Deliah moved her sky blue eyes to the crowd that was surrounding her and Dash. Was it her, or was he trying to use crowd pressure to get her to join his posse? It looked like it. Did that bother her? A little bit. But what really bothered her was that Dash and the other members of the popular crowd were so convinced that anyone would have to be brain dead to not take what they were offering. Can you say _cocky_? So, taking in a deep breath, Deliah let loose something that should have been said a long time ago, letting her annoyance fight her fear of attention.

"Okay. On the one hand, I could have a 'life of social ease and comfort'. I would never have to worry about where to sit once my lunch hour rolled around. I would get to do whatever I wanted to whomever I wanted, and no one would ever be able to say anything against me. I would be a fashion inspiration. I would have people give me money if I ever needed it, would get to wear really nice clothes every day, and I would be treated like royalty wherever I go." At this point, she chanced a look at Dash, ignoring how the twisting in her gut had gotten a lot worse. What _had_ she eaten for lunch? _Just ignore it._ She told herself. She then addressed Dash. "Am I correct on all of that, for the most part at least?" she asked him. The blond jock had a comfortable smile on his face.

"Yeah. You're spot on." He said leisurely. Deliah nodded, and then turned to face Danny. Was it just her, or did he look a bit scared? And the fact that the knot in her gut was all the more twisted up and uncomfortable didn't help. But she ignored it.

"However." She said, this time addressing the entire crowd. The knot lessened. "The friends that I would make would be kept in the dark. Their success would be limited to high school. I would be trapped. I would be forced to do what society expected of me. I would be limited to only a dozen or so people that I could hang out with. The friends I would make wouldn't last much farther than high school. I wouldn't be able to share secrets with anyone, for fear that they would get out." The expression on Danny's face had gone from nervous to relieved, yet smug happiness, with the smug smile being directed at Dash, whose face was growing as scarlet his Letterman jacket as Deliah continued. The other A listers off behind him didn't look too happy either. Deliah walked over to Dash, and placed a hand on his arm. She spoke in a gentle voice.

"Dash, you are a great athlete. And you're passionate about several things and you put your time and energy into those things, and those are great traits to have. But," she continued, "You're a bully. You're only concerned with about _you_. You _like_ the fact that you're the most feared student in school. You stereotype people because of how they dress, what subjects they like, or what hobbies they may have." Deliah took her hand off of Dash's arm, which had stiffened when he heard what she had said. Deliah faced the other members of the popular crowd. "You _all_ do that."

"You guys, over the past month or so, I've gotten to know you. You all are humans, with strengths, weaknesses, fears, and beliefs. And I respect that. But you guys don't have any respect for others. You push the people down who try to be like you and impress you, and you do it without thinking twice. Since I've moved here, I've met a bunch of people, all of whom are great in their own way, and I want to be the kind of person who people remember fondly, not someone people wince at whenever they recall. So . . ." Deliah looked around. Everyone was silently looking at her. To her surprise, she spotted Tucker and Sam in the crowd. They both gave her smiles of encouragement. When she looked over at Danny, she felt the knot in her gut completely vanish as Danny gave her a barely perceivable nod. So, turning back around on her heel, Deliah pushed her bangs out of her face, and finished her sentence. "Thanks, but no thanks."

Surprisingly enough, Dash maintained a calm exterior. "You won't ever get another chance, Deliah" he told her. At this, Deliah couldn't help but to snort.

"Oh, sure I will. I may not want to, but I'll be moving sometime this summer. I'll have another chance, which I won't take, but I'll have one nevertheless, Dash. It's you and your friends who won't." she said to him.

To nobody's real surprise, there was a somewhat awkward silence after that. After a few seconds, Dash looked at her like she was a stranger, and said, "You were always going to be a dork anyway, Deliah."

And even though it pained her to say it, she said what she knew was true, and what she knew wouldn't change. "And you were always going to be a jerk, Dash."

It took a few seconds, but the crowd of students finally began to disperse. Not much longer after that, Deliah herself slipped away. Since she really didn't feel like flying to St. Alice's, she walked. She wanted the comforting silence, solitude, and rhythm that there was to be found in walking home alone. She was almost to the orphanage when she heard a voice that made her stop and turn.

"Deliah! Wait up!" It was Tucker.

"Tucker? What are you doing here?"

Tucker, who was panting heavily, took a minute to respond. "I forgot to give you this at school today." He said between gasps for air. After he had caught most of his breath, he opened up his backpack and dug through it. After a couple moments of searching, he pulled out a black laptop. After examining it for a few seconds with an expert eye, he handed it to her. She took it uncertainly.

"Uh, what is this for?"

Tucker looked up from zipping his backpack closed. "Hm? Oh. Well, you've been really busy lately, and so have I. So, since you still need a laptop, I told the city that I needed one. They took a bit of convincing, but once I told then it was for a new ghost hunter, they consented." The young mayor told her.

"B-but I'm not a ghost hunter." She said, starting to freak out, since she _was_ a ghost hunter. But there was no way Tucker could know that. Was there?

"Yeah. I know that. But it got you a computer, didn't it? And relax, it's just a normal laptop. But . . . I _did_ tell them that the ghost hunter had the initials 'DP', and _that_ made them get it to me all the faster. But, that also made them pre-install all the ghost files we have onto the database. And they put the Phantom logo as the screen saver. I hope you don't mind, but I left it like that. 'D' and 'P' are your initials, so I didn't think that you would mind. And you don't need to check out the ghost files if you don't want to. But if you do, it's good information. And it could come in handy if you're ever in a ghost attack." He told her. "Plus, reading the Box Ghost's file is always a good laugh."

Deliah smiled at the adolescent mayor. "Thank you, Tucker. I really appreciate it. How much do I owe you?" she asked, but Tucker waved her off.

"No, you don't need to worry about that. Think of it as a thank you for what you said to Dash and the popular people back there. What you said was long overdue; it's about time someone turned them down and stood up to them." He grinned at her, and she returned the smile.

"Well, thanks." She began walking away whit the computer hugged to her body before she stopped and turned for one more question. "Hey, Tucker?" the African-American boy with the red beret glanced over his shoulder.

"Yeah?"

"I was just wondering, but did you by any chance pre-install _Doomed?_" she watched as Tucker's face split into a grin.

"Actually, I did. You're a player?" he asked. Deliah laughed to herself before she responded.

"Oh yeah. That's one of the reasons I've been wanting a computer for so long. I have a friend online that I haven't been able to talk with for the longest time. I can only hope that he'll forgive my absence." When she said that, Tucker's expression turned thoughtful.

"You don't say?" he asked. Deliah looked at him curiously. She was about to ask what was up, but decided against it. If he wanted to tell her, she was sure he would. And anyway, she had an online friend to reconnect with.

"See you around, Tucker." She called out before hurrying off to St. Alice's. Once she was up in her room, she quickly turned the laptop on. She waited as it booted up. To her dismay, it asked for a password. After a few failed attempts, she noticed the hint box. She clicked on it, and read what was available.

'_Deliah; Sorry if I didn't tell you the password. I meant to. You can change it once you log in. The password is '_ghosthunter'_. Tucker._

Smiling, Deliah tried what Tucker had left for her, and the 'Welcome' screen popped up. After a short while, the home screen came up. It was a black background, with the white Phantom insignia. Deliah smiled at the irony. Without hesitating, she clicked on the _Doomed_ icon. The window opened, and asked for her username and password. Filling in the information, she waited for the game to log her on. Once it did, she quickly pulled up her buddy list to see if Tgeek911 was on. To her relief, he was. She quickly typed up a message, praying he would respond.

_Liah96: Tech! Hey. I am SO sorry for being offline the past long time. I so didn't plan on it. I'm so sorry, my life just got really hectic, and it's just now calming down. Sort of._

Deliah waited with bated breath. When she saw the words _Tgeek911 is typing, _she let out a huge exhale. She smiled when she read what he had written.

_Tgeek911: Liah! Man, it's been ages. I was afraid you'd gotten tired of _Doomed_. Or me, but that's a ridiculous thought. No one can get tired of me._

_Liah96: Too true. And I really am sorry. I just now got a new computer, and . . . It's just nice to be back._

_Tgeek911: New computer, huh? Nice. And don't worry about it. As long as you promise to do all the fighting for me for the next week, I'll call us even._

_Liah96: Works for me. But, mind you, I'm not as high level-wise as you, and I'm not online 24/7. So I might be a bit rusty._

_Tgeek911: All the more reason for you to practice! And playing _Doomed_ is like riding a bike; you can't forget how to do it. Not possible. C'mon! Are you up for it?_

Deliah smiled. It was just like old times.

_Liah96: Of course I'm up for it. Let's go slay some stuff._

Deliah stayed up half the night, messaging, laughing, and becoming ever the more thankful for her friend. After several hours of gaming, she said goodnight, and logged off her computer. She checked the clock. Around half an hour after midnight; which was strange. No ghost attacks? What was up with that? The raven haired girl shrugged the matter off. There would most likely be one in a few hours; all the more reason to get some sleep now, before the attacks came. She got up, stretched, brushed her teeth, changed into her pajamas, and got into her bed. Glad that, for tonight, she felt comfortable.

**Yeah, yeah, I know. Not nearly as long as the previous chapter. But, in my defense, I told you that one was freakishly long. Now; Deliah's speech to Dash. Was it too cheesy? I sure hope not, because I have no idea how I would rewrite that. Anyway, thanks for reading!**

**Oh! And I want to send a shout out to my very good friend Brie (she doesn't have a FanFiction account). She does all of my proof-reading, so what you're reading doesn't end up without any commas. Or something like that. She's awesome. Another shout out goes to you, the reader! I would be no where without you!**

**Until next time!**


	16. The Joy of Brainiac Sisters

**Wow. I have not been up for a while. Who knew? But I guess having two jobs can suck up a lot of your time. Yep, I now have TWO jobs! Go me! I have the one full time one being a medical assistant, and I'm in training to be a cashier at a local convenience store, so I'll still have a job once classes start. Eh. Still, I'm sorry that this has taken so long, but Jazz is a hard character for me to get my head into, so I hope that you'll all forgive me, and I sincerely hope that this is up to your expectations. Mine aren't that high but that's me. The author always worries about their stuff. Am I right? Oh well. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer:**** Do I look like I could come up with a ghost-powered teenager all on my own, and give that character a story to go with them? I'm sorry, what's that? Oh. I guess I already have. Bad disclaimer. Umm . . . I don't own Danny Phantom? I guess that that works, even though it's not very creative. Off you go! *shoos the readers down a few lines to the story down there***

**Chapter 16: The Joy of Brainiac Sisters**

Danny watched with a smile on his face as he watched the crowd outside the front of Casper High dissipate. He didn't want to admit it, but he had been really nervous when Dash and the other popular kids had offered Deliah a spot in their midst. He felt as if there was a knot that was twisting somewhere in his gut, which got worse when Deliah had named all of the pros of a popular life. But when his sister had moved onto all of the cons, he couldn't stop his knees from shaking in relief. Danny was still reliving the look on Dash's face when Deliah had called him a jerk, so he didn't notice that Sam had walked up next to him until she intertwined her fingers with his. Once he was back to earth, Sam laughed at his facial expression.

"She has a way with words, doesn't she?" Sam asked as the two raven haired teenagers began to walk home. Danny ran his free hand through his already messy hair as he responded.

"Yeah. She does." At that moment, Danny noticed something. After a few seconds of glancing around, he found what was missing. "Uh, Sam? Where's Tucker?"

The environmentally concerned Goth looked over at the ghost hero. "He went to go find your twin, actually. He wanted to give her that laptop. I'm pretty sure he's talking her ear off about _Doomed_ or something right now." Danny nodded, as what Sam said refreshed his memory and reminded him of Tucker telling him that he had gotten Deliah a new laptop.

"Oh yeah. I remember." Danny said. The Goth and the ghost hero fell into a comfortable silence as they walked home. After a few minutes of companionable silence, they split, going their separate directions to their homes. A short while later, Danny reached his house; a tall, brick building that had an enormous metal contraption attached to the roof. The building was also marked by a large neon sign that read 'Fenton Works'. As strange as it looked, to Danny, it was home. He entered through the front door, and made his way upstairs to his room.

Danny entered his room, which was covered with NASA and astronaut poster, and placed his bag down, on his desk. He then collapsed on his bed, relishing in the fact that nothing was calling for his attention . . .

"Danny?" Jazz stuck her head into his room. Groaning inwardly, he sat up on his bed, rubbed his eyes, and looked over at his older sister.

"What is it, Jazz?" he asked her.

Jazz's face was without expression when she answered. "We need to talk, Danny." She said, entering his room and closing the door behind her. Danny watched silently as she sat down at his desk chair. Once she was situated, he cocked an eyebrow at her.

"I saw the most interesting thing as I was driving home from school." Jazz said, her face still unreadable. "It looked like a majority of the school was out on the front lawn. I stopped my car, and I went over to check it out, and I saw the most interesting thing."

Danny felt some of the blood drain out of his face as he began to see where his sister was going.

"It was a girl." Jazz said, her voice becoming accusing as she continued. "A girl telling that guy, Dash Baxter, that she didn't want to be friends with him. You were there. You seemed to know her. Well. She looked a _lot_ like you. Almost like you were twins." Jazz leaned back in Danny's desk chair. "Oh, and what was her name? Oh yeah! I remember now. It was _Deliah_." Jazz narrowed her intelligent blue eyes at her brother. "Mom and Dad went to the store, and won't be back for a while. So spill."

Danny's mind was going a thousand miles per hour. Jazz had witnessed Deliah's speech? He hadn't even thought about his older sister while he had been there. "Um . . . I . . ." Danny trailed off, not knowing what to say. Jazz's expression softened slightly as she got up from the chair she had been sitting in, walked over to the ghost powered adolescent, sat down next to him, and placed a hand comfortingly oh his shoulder.

"Danny, I'm your sister. I have a right to know." She waited as he took in a few deep breaths.

"It's her. Deliah Preston? The person Tucker thought might be my twin? She goes to Casper High. She transferred there around a month ago. I showed her to her Trigonometry class on her first day. We're friends. And Jazz?" he looked over at his sister, who was leaning forward so that she could catch every word the ghost boy was saying. "What you said, about her looking like she could be my twin? You were right. She is. I _know_ she is. I can't explain it, I just . . . know." The ghost kid said, looking at the high school senior out of the corner of his eye. "Does that make any sense?" he asked, a note of desperation creeping its way into the teenagers voice.

000000

Jazz gazed at her younger brother, her eyes softening when she saw how his shoulders were tense, as if he was preparing himself for a rebuke coming from her. _It's funny. _She mused silently to herself. _I've seen him face tons of ghosts without hesitating, but when he thinks he's going to get it from his sister, it's a completely different story._ She gently squeezed Danny's shoulder, and waited until he was looking at her before she spoke.

"Considering that she's _your_ twin, it does. But what's bothering me is that you've known about her for, what? A month? Maybe a bit longer than that?" Jazz wasn't expecting her brother to respond to that statement, so it surprised her when he did.

"Actually . . . I ran into her a while back." A look that could only be described as guilt was marring his face.

"Really? When?" Came the inquiry.

"Um . . . remember when Vlad made a surprised visit on my birthday, and I left to got think while, you, Mom, and Dad went and did some research and check some old hospital and orphanage records?" Jazz recalled the day and nodded, urging him to continue. "That day. I ran into her as Danny Phantom, and I didn't know who she was at first. But then Skulker showed up and she just . . . vanished." Danny said, his eyes not moving from the tops of his red and white sneakers.

At this, Jazz dropped her hand from her brother's shoulder. "Wait. You've _known_?" she asked incredulously. "You've known that _our_ sister has been in the area since your birthday, at Casper High for the past month, and you didn't think that your family should know about it?" Danny looked over at her. "Danny, I've gone nuts looking for _anything_ on Deliah Preston. So have Mom and Dad. And here, you are, socializing with her for a _month_ before we find out about it? Danny, how could you? Why did you keep this from us? I know that she's your twin, but she's a part of this family. To all of us. And something tells me that both Sam and Tucker know. Am I right?" When the raven haired ghost hero nodded, she put her head in her hands. "I just don't understand why." She mumbled.

When Danny heard that, he took in a deep breath, then stood up and faced his sister. "Jazz." He began. "No one besides you and I know that I ran into her the night I turned sixteen. Not Sam, not Tucker, no body. After she disappeared, I spent the next couple of weeks looking for her. I swear- I looked in every town within a fifty mile radius. I felt like I needed to look for her on my own. And then, one day, she just magically appeared in my English class. I didn't want to scare her off, so I got to be her friend. I figured that if I was her friend, she would trust me. But the popular kids also liked her, so she mainly spent her time avoiding them. She didn't socialize with Tucker, Sam, and me very much either. But I think that that was because she didn't want Dash and Kwan to pick on us."

Jazz had lifted her head from her hands to look at Danny as he spoke. "But why didn't you introduce her to us? Or even _mention_ her?" Danny sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Jazz, think of her situation. She's been in and out of foster care her entire life. Attention was never a good thing for her. She's really guarded when she meets new people. And I don't mean guarded like she won't talk much; no, she . . . she just keeps her distance. I don't think she's ever had a real friend. She mentioned an online pal, but that doesn't really count. I didn't want to scare her off by introducing her to our family. I-I just thought that it would be too much. And if I told Mom or Dad . . . you know how they are. A pair of jump suited ghost hunters with weapons everywhere and raving about ghosts and fudge? That would _definitely_ scare her off. You of all people know that our family can- no, _does_ take some getting used to.

Jazz blinked as she digested what was said to her. She hadn't thought about how Deliah's past could make her wary of new people. But, once she thought about it, it made perfect sense. Just then, an unpleasant thought occurred to her.

"Wait. Who is she staying with? Did she say which family took her in while she's staying here? She has to be in some form of foster care." Danny looked uncomfortable.

"That's just it, Jazz. She's not in foster care. She ran away from her last foster home a while back, and she's been living at the St. Alice's Orphanage. From what I can gather, she's staying until the school year is over, then she'll be back in the system."

Jazz nodded slowly as the realization set in. "So what you're saying is that we've got approximately one month until she's shipped to who knows where." Danny nodded grimly. The two siblings stayed that way for a moment. Danny sighed and sank to the floor, leaning against his dresser. He looked up when Jazz leaned forward on his bed, her eyes now bright and excited. He shot her a look of confusion.

"What?"

Jazz rolled her eyes sarcastically. "Tell me about her! You've known her for an entire month! Yeah, she looks like a female version of you, but what's she _like_?"

She watched as Danny smiled as if recalling a pleasant memory. "She's super smart. I looked at her schedule on her first day, and she's mostly got Advanced Placement classes. She's mainly getting A's, and she's usually people watching, drawing, or reading in her spare time." Jazz smiled, and nodded earnestly for her brother to continue. "She's really nice. If you were there at school earlier, which you were, you saw how she treated all of those popular kids. Even when she caked them selfish and disrespectful, she found a way to be nice about it."

Jazz nodded as she took in the new information. "What kind of mannerisms does she have? Does she have any quirky habits? Or any habits that you do sometimes?"

She watched as Danny's eyes went in and out of focus as he shifted through a month's worth of memories. Jazz felt a slight twinge of jealousy as she realized just how much her brother knew, but she pushed it away. She knew that Danny had his reasons, and Deliah was _his_ twin, after all. Maybe he had wanted to get to know their younger sister, to make sure that he was right that she was his sister, and not someone who just looked like him. _We never did know for sure if Deliah Preston was the one we were looking for. She was just the only lead we had. _Jazz conceded. So she waited, patiently but still eager, to hear what the famed ghost hero had to say.

"Well, she rubs the back of her neck when she's nervous or flustered, and I've noticed that she . . . uh . . . stands the same way I do? Her posture is a lot like mine. Straight back and all that." Jazz looked up when her brother had stopped talking. He was looking at her with amusement dancing in his eyes.

"What?"

"Nothing. I just think that it's funny that you're taking notes." He said. Jazz rolled her eyes, gripped her pencil and the small notebook that she had taken out, and waited for the black haired adolescent to continue. When he didn't she looked up again to find him looking as if he didn't know where to go next.

"What is _she_ like? Past the mannerisms, what's she actually like?" Jazz prodded gently. She watched as Danny's face turned thoughtful before he responded.

"She's . . . well, she's guarded, Jazz. Even though she's super nice, you can tell that she doesn't always put forth everything. When I first met her, I was showing her to her next class. She was great throughout the entire thing, making jokes and teasing me, but I could just _tell_ that she wasn't completely coming out of her shell, so to speak. And when I ran into her in the park later that day, she confessed to me that she didn't like to have very much attention, since 'attention has always been bad news'." Danny said, making quote marks in the air with his fingers.

Jazz paused from writing what Danny had told her as she soaked in what had been said. "Danny." She said, cutting off the ghost boy who had opened his mouth to continue. "I'm a bit lost. You say that she's guarded, doesn't like attention, and has problems opening up?" she looked at her brother, who nodded to let her know that she was correct. "But yet she opened up to you after a single school day with you? That doesn't make any sense; being guarded and opening up."

Danny shrugged. "Well, maybe she knows on a deeper level that she can trust me." Jazz made a note, and then looked up as a sudden thought occurred to her.

"Hey Danny?"

"Yeah?"

"There's been a lot of talk in the news lately. About you. Well, about Danny Phantom, actually."

"What about it? Jazz, you of all people should know that the news doesn't always put the real truth out there. Remember when everyone thought I had taken the mayor captive a few years back?" Jazz nodded, but still looked a little bit uneasy.

"No, Danny, it's not that. It's nothing that you've done, I was just curious about that new Phantom girl. The one who looks kind of like a fan girl with too much time on her hands? You haven't mentioned her, and she looks a lot like you. You said to the press earlier this week that you trusted her, and I just wanted to know why. And anything else you know about this ghost girl." She watched as her brother raised an eyebrow at her quizzically.

"And you'll keep this between us?" he asked.

Jazz shrugged and tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear as she answered. "Well, Mom and Dad both want to know as well. They _do_ watch the news, you know." She watched as her younger brother sighed, brought his hands to his face, and sank to the ground. She remained silent as he leaned against his dresser and took his hands away from his face.

"Alright, alright. I'll tell you what I know. The 'new Phantom girl', as you call her, is a ghost. He name's Deliah Phantom, and from what I can gather, the name was given to her by Vlad Plasmius. I literally ran into her a couple of weeks after my birthday. I was flying over the woods of Lake Eerie, and we crashed into each other." Danny told her. He was about to continue with his story when Jazz couldn't help but interrupt.

"Why were you over there? I mean, Lake Eerie and the woods surrounding it aren't too terribly far away, but it's still a bit out of the way to be at night, and it's nowhere near any of the places that you visit during your ghost patrols. . ." Jazz trailed off, waiting for Danny to answer her unspoken question. To her puzzlement, her little brother was shifting around on the floor, as if he felt uncomfortable. Or guilty.

"Oh. Um, ever since I ran into Deliah on my-_our_ birthday, I'd been looking around for her." The blue eyed teenager said in a voice that was most definitely tinged with guilt. Jazz blinked a few times in surprise.

"What? Danny, you can't be telling me that you were looking for her on your own. When you _knew_ she was in the area." But the look on the ghost hero's face told her otherwise. She sighed in disappointment. "Danny, why wouldn't you say anything to us? It might not be us who have the long lost twin sister, but we've still been doing all the research possible. I've looked at almost every foster care home in the country, Mom has made tons of calls to some people she thinks might have been past foster parents, and Dad has even put some of his ghost hunting and inventing on hold for his research, and he never does that." She watched as her brother's expression turned all the guiltier, but she plowed forward. "And you're telling me that you've known that the person we've been looking for these past couple of months is in the area? And that you were looking for her without being in the dark like the rest of your family?" Danny hung his head.

"Yeah. That's what I'm telling you." The black haired boy said to his sneakers. He really did sound sorry, but Jazz just wanted to know one more thing.

"Why, Danny? Why didn't you tell us? We're your family. We may not be the one with the long lost twin, but we are the ones with a long lost sister and daughter." Danny looked up into her eyes, and he seemed to realize what he had unintentionally done. But, apparently, there was some confusion on his part.

"Jazz, I'm getting mixed signals from you. You're okay with me not telling anyone about Deliah being at Casper High for the past month, but me looking for her before that and not telling you has got you angry? It doesn't make much sense to me." He said. "And, plus: I already mentioned it. I told you in passing that I had been looking for her."

Jazz quickly thought back to earlier points in their conversation, and found that he had mentioned it. Mentally berating herself for missing that, she answered. "Danny, I get that you wanted to befriend her. I just don't like it that you didn't trust us enough to let us help you look before that. We may not have ghost powers, but we still would have had a much higher probability of finding her sooner if you had told us. So, again, without any quips or questions, I want you to tell me why you didn't tell us." She narrowed her eyes as she awaited her answer.

"For a bunch of reasons, actually. Like I already said, you and I both know that our family is hard to adjust to, and," the ghost hero added, seeing that she was showing several signs of interrupting. "I felt like I had to do this on my own. Not because of the fact that I can via ghost powers, but because she's _my_ twin. Yeah, I get that I'm not the only who wanted to find her, but I just felt that if I could find her, and if I could befriend her, she might be more open to our family, and . . . I don't know, Jazz. You did some research a while back on how some twins have some sort of a connection, right? Like sometimes someone can feel what the other is feeling?" Jazz nodded. "It's kind of like that. It wasn't much of a conscious decision. I just followed my instinct, and I think that it's paying off. We're friends." Danny's eyes flickered up to Jazz's, and she felt her anger retreating. "Please Jazz, understand that I never meant to leave you or Mom and Dad out for finding her, I just did what I thought was right, and what would be the most comfortable for Deliah."

This time, it was Jazz who sighed. "I believe you, Danny. I'm just upset that all of my research was pointless." She said. She was surprised when her brother shook his head.

"It wasn't pointless, Jazz. Someday, she'll find out how much time and energy you put into looking for her. I can't speak for her, but that would mean a lot if someone did all of that for me." Jazz flashed her brother a grateful smile, which he readily returned. "Now what were we talking about before you got mad at me?"

"Oh. I mainly just wanted to know why you trust the Phantom girl. Deliah Phantom? I saw the video footage of you-Fenton you- and her with Skulker. She seems really powerful. If you're wrong about her, and I'm not saying that you are, but . . ." she trailed off, not knowing how to finish her statement tactfully.

"She could turn right around and attack me?" Danny finished for her. Jazz bit her lip as she nodded.

"Well, yeah. She's been staying out of the press, so no one really knows who she is, or what her motives are. . . I just think that you should be careful. She could be dangerous." Her brother nodded, a smile crossing his features.

"Yeah. You're right, Jazz; she is dangerous. To all of the ghosts that she's crammed into the Fenton Thermos these past couple of weeks. The reason I've been home and not fighting ghosts lately is because she's out there doing it for me. And Deliah knows her." He added as an afterthought.

Jazz blinked in confusion. _What? _Her confused look must have registered to the raven haired teenager, because he clarified.

"Deliah Preston. She knows Deliah Phantom." Jazz couldn't help but to quirk an eyebrow at him.

"And how do you know this?"

"She told me. Both of them told me that they knew the other. Listen, Jazz. I know that you want to protect me, and I appreciate it. But I'm not a kid anymore. Well, technically I am, but still." Jazz watched as her brother's eyes softened as he looked at her. "I can handle myself. And if it ever turns out that I can't, then that's what I have you for. You have to trust that I'll be okay out there.

"It's not that I don't trust you, little brother. I'm just scared that one day you'll come home and be injured beyond repair." She managed to choke out softly.

000000

All of the exasperation and frustration that Danny had for his older sister vanished when he heard her voice her fears. He got to his feel, walked over, and sat on his bed next to the brainiac redhead. "I can't promise that that will never happen. With way I have for extra-curriculars, there's going to be a high chance of that happening. But I'm learning." He waited until his sister's blue eyes met his before he continued. "And I've got the best back up in the world if I need it." Once he said this, Jazz surprised him by wrapping him into a sudden embrace. Though startled, he returned it. Once they pulled apart, Jazz began wiping her eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry for getting all teary-eyed on you, little brother." She said. Danny shrugged.

"It's no problem. But can you do one thing for me?"

"Sure."

"Don't tell Mom and Dad that Deliah's going to Casper High."

"What? Why?"

"You know why. I spent the past five minutes explaining to you why I didn't tell you; those reasons should be good enough to satisfy you." When the ghost powered teen saw the redheaded psychiatrist waver, he added, "C'mon, Jazz. You didn't tell _me_ that you knew of my ghost powers. You knew for a _long_ time before I found out that you knew." His sister let out an annoyed puff of air, and he knew that he had her convinced.

"Alright, alright. I'll keep quiet. On one condition." She said. Danny felt himself deflate.

"What is it?" he asked cautiously.

"I want to meet her. Not as a family member, I just want to meet her. You can introduce me to her as your sister, or I can bump into her at or after school, I just want to meet the girl."

Danny narrowed his eyes playfully. "And you won't make any comments about a possible relation between us and her?" Jazz's expression became one of mock annoyance.

"Oh please. I'm sure we can find _something_ to talk about." She said, rolling her eyes.

"Then I think that we have an agreement." Danny said, sticking his hand out for his sister to shake. She smiled and slipped her hand into his.

**Okay, wow. I hope that no one minds that I keep swapping perspectives all the time. I'm noticing that it's a trend that I follow. And I almost never follow trends. . . even my own.**

**Anyway, I hope that I did Jazz justice. I'm not really the best at getting inside her head, and she's such an awesome character, so I want to get her voice correctly. Lemme know whatcha think!**

**Keep laughing!**

**(Oh, and a P.S.: My school is going to start within the next couple of weeks, so I'll be a tad bit busier than usual. But I promise to keep updating. Just expect longer pauses in between chapters. Thanks for reading!)**


	17. Observations

**Wow. I should just hop off a small cliff and be done with it. I am SO unbelievably sorry that I have taken this long. But, on the upside, you are reading this, which means you at least want to know what happens next, even if it's been close to a month. *hopeful smile* I really should shut up and let you read . . . Yeah, shoo. Look down a few lines to the un-bolded print. I hope this chapter is worth the wait! (But, in my defense, I was busy.) Yeah, yeah, I know. Shut up and continue. Oh, and before I forget, I want to apologize for the cliché-ness of this chapter. You'll probably be able to guess what's going to happen, sadly enough. (And no, THAT doesn't happen. Sheesh, people. I want this story to last a while. No under twenty chapter stories for me. You should know better than that!) ;)**

**Disclaimer****: Alex doesn't do well in charge. Who would be dumb enough to put **_**Alex Leep**_** in charge of a TV show? Because it would not end well, let me tell you. Alex would probably end up making something stupid happen. Like what would happen if The Ultimate Enemy came back? Dude. Everybody would DIE. Or, a really epic battle would ensue . . . PLOT IDEA! No one bother me! Alex has an IDEA! *picks up random pager thing* Who even uses pagers anymore? I'm sorry, what? Oh? You want me to finish Deliah's story. Fine. I shall hold on my Ultimate Enemy idea. *drags feet as Alex goes to write up chapter 17, then runs like a maniac to get there* What am I saying? NOTHING WILL GET IN THE WAY OF ME AND DELIAH'S UNEVITABLE FATE! (Overkill much? Yeah. But what can I say? The disclaimer is one of my favorite parts!)**

**Chapter 17: Observations**

Deliah let loose another annoyed puff of air that moved her bangs once again off of her forehead. Absentmindedly, she pushed them out of her eyes. The source of the ghost powered girl's annoyance and frustration was her gym teacher, since Miss Tetslaff insisted on pairing her with big, burly, football players. Yeah, she got it that most kids were not at her level, but she was tired of everyone she was paired with during this 'self-defense' class using the same tactics over and over.

_I_ know _how to take down an athlete_. Deliah thought to herself as she walked over to the gym teacher, mentally preparing herself to confront the violence-oriented physical education instructor. Legitimate reason for a confrontation or not, the woman still intimidated her. But what did she have to lose? The worst that could happen was that she would be kicking brawny football player booty for the next month until school let out for the summer. _Which is when I'll be leaving Amilty Park and moving to some other random place on this planet. _She thought glumly. But the raven haired girl pushed that thought away. She wasn't looking forward to it; it was always draining to adjust and start over, but it was a way of life, and there was no use in complaining about what you can't change, she berated herself, thinking back to her motto on life.

"What do you want, Preston?" came a gruff question that made Deliah come out of her thoughts with a non-literal _thump_. Looking up, she saw that she was standing in front of the martial-crazed teacher herself; Miss Tetslaff.

"Oh. Uh . . . hi Miss Tetslaff." Deliah said, making her voice sound bright and cheery.

"Skip the formalities, Preston. We're on a tight schedule, so whatever it is that you've got to say, say it so we can get it over with. Quickly."

_Well, she's making this surprisingly easy_. Deliah thought before she responded. "I was wondering if I could have some different partners." She said. The gym teacher raised an eyebrow.

"Everyone gets a new partner every day." Was the teacher's reply.

"I know. But the only partners that I've been getting the past month have been football players-or at least someone with a similar physique or body build. I just wanted to know if I could fight against someone else. I'm getting tired of going up against the same fighting style." Deliah told the teacher, feeling that her argument was perfectly reasonable. Miss Tetslaff, however, looked unimpressed.

"Preston, you've proven yourself to be a knowledgeable student when it comes to self defense. I've paired you with the people that can take the damage you consistently leave them with." At this statement, Deliah saw an opening, so she took it.

"But that's only because I'm paired with people that need that amount of force to be brought down. If I was paired up with someone else, I'm positive that I could hold back. And, after all," Deliah added, figuring Miss Tetslaff would be more lenient if the phrase she kept saying during class was quoted back at her. "The key to self defense is knowing how much force to use." Deliah watched as her words worked their magic. The gym teacher's muscular chest puffed out, and a cocky smile graced (if you could call anything the teacher did graceful) her features.

"Well, since you've been doing so well, Preston, I think that we can make an exception." Delaih smiled as the violence-oriented gym teacher surveyed the students that were coming out of the locker rooms in shorts and shirts that all matched. Deliah looked down at her own gym outfit. No difference. The same as everybody else. She looked up and saw the teacher with the army pants scan the crowd of students. The gym coach that many a student deemed frightening spoke to a small group, gesturing in the general area of Deliah. The said ghost girl didn't bother looking at who the physical education teacher had chosen for her; she wanted to be surprised. And she was. (Even though looking back, she really shouldn't have been. She should have expected something as cliché as this to happen.)

"Preston! I've got you your partner for today." Came a call. Delaih raised her eyes to see the gym teacher leading a dark haired boy toward her. Once the boy caught a glimpse of her, he smiled, but rolled his eyes.

"Deliah. Of course it's Deliah. My life is far too cliché for my self defense partner to be anyone else." And while Deliah agreed with him, she wasn't sure about the tone he used_. This guy has seen me throw Dash and Kwan on the ground almost every day for the past four weeks, and he sounds bored? And unimpressed?_ Deliah asked herself. Most people would take offense, but Deliah simply stored the boy's remark away for later, and smiled at Danny.

"Fenton, Preston, you two will take the far corner over there." Miss Tetslaff said, gesturing to a mat off in a corner. "Keep it clean. Blood is a pain to clean up, not to mention all of the paperwork that goes with it." Both of the blue eyed teenagers rolled their eyes simultaneously. "Fenton, go on. Preston, a word." One more eye roll on the male adolescent's part before he left to go off to the sparring mat.

"Preston, I want you to not hold back on Fenton. He's roughly the same height as you, but with a bit more muscle on him. So go defend yourself." Miss Tetslaff told her before turning to watch other students and point out what they were doing incorrectly. Deliah watcher her walk off, then mentally shook herself.

_Don't hold back? What kind of teacher tells a student in a self-defense class to go hard on their opponent? I'm really starting to question her teaching methods?_ Deliah thought as she made her way over to Danny, who was leaning against the wall, waiting for her. Wordlessly, they began to stretch together.

"So what did Miss Tetslaff say to you?" Danny asked her, bending over to tie his shoes. Deliah stopped and looked over at him, surprised at what she saw. It took her a second to realize that he was expecting a response.

"Hm? Oh. She told me to not go easy on you." She said.

"Really? Huh. I thought she'd be a bit more creative than that." Deliah looked over at him from underneath her bangs and saw a strangely familiar look in her partner's eyes. She offered him a small smile and shrugged.

"Yeah. Well, should we get started?" she asked. This time, it was Danny that shrugged.

"Yeah, sure. I look forward to being thrown down faster than I can blink." When he said that, Deliah tipped her head to one side. While common sense (and past experience) told her that she could throw him down, what she had observed earlier while he had been tying his shoes lead her to believe differently. It was a hunch more than anything else, and she had no real past experience to back her theory up, but she was beginning to let a learned skill take over, and she wanted to try it out.

"Me too." She said, watching as the person standing across from her did a double take. "Huh?"

"No one this past month has been able to sweep me off my feet in a very literal and non-romantic sense." Deliah said, rolling her shoulders.

"Yeah, I know." Danny told her, confusion working its' way into his tone. "No one can best you. The entire class-no-_grade_ knows that."

Deliah shrugged an innocent looking shrug. "I'm not so sure about that." She said. Danny snorted.

"What? You think that Dash could beat you if he got some training or something? Please, he'll never be good enough to 'sweep you off of your feet'." He said, making quote marks in the air with his fingers.

Deliah shook her head. "Nah. That guy won't improve. And, his pride and ego were degraded so much yesterday; I don't think he'll ever want to see me on the same sparring mat again. I was talking about you." She said to him.

Danny's eyebrows disappeared into his hair, he was so surprised. "Me? What are you talking about? Has my high school history of being picked on not been made clear to you? What do I have that makdes you think that I could beat you?"

In response, Deliah simply pointed at the Casper High logo on his gym shirt. He looked down.

"My shirt?"

"No. You. Namely, your torso." When the boy's confusion became even more pronounced, she continued. "When you bent over, to tie your shoe? Your shirt went up a little bit, and I caught a glimpse of your waist. Not much, only a few inches worth."

Danny raised one eyebrow quizzically. "So?"

"So it means that the shirt you're wearing, and the one you usually wear for that matter, is really baggy on you. And from what little I saw on you," she said, approaching the black haired boy until she was an arms' length away. She looked at him with no expression for a few seconds, before she punched his midsection. Danny stepped back, but only from surprise. Deliah noted that there wasn't any pain that registered on his face. Just surprise.

"What was that for?"

"Danny, I'm going to let you in on something. You are fit. Really fit. From what I can tell, you must do some serious exercise. And from the way your body is built? I'd say that it's from fighting. You're muscular. You're also lean, and –dare I say it?-lithe."

Danny's face had gone blank during her little tirade. Deliah was pretty sure that most of what she had just said had gone through one ear and out the other. Her suspicions were confirmed when all she got for a response was a perplexed "Huh?"

_Okay. Obviously I need to do something else to get through to him_. Deliah thought. She cast a cursory glance around the gym, and saw various people either talking, fighting, or being yelled at by Miss Tetslaff. She looked back at Danny, who was simply watching her curiously. _I could always just try-no. There's no way he would fall for that._

_But why not? _She asked herself_. As smart as he is, he can be pretty clueless. All I need to do is some prodding. And if it doesn't work, then it doesn't work. But how do I bait him? He's not going to fall for something like that without letting his guard down. _Delaih moved a practiced eye over Danny, and saw how she could do it. She walked over to him, and saw him tense, which wasn't surprising, considering her reputation that involved people, gym class, and the floor. She stepped behind him quickly, and he looked at her over his shoulder, curiosity and apprehension clear on his face. Smiling to let him know she wasn't going to try anything, she gently pushed his head with a finger so he was looking forward. Shooting her a quick, but confused, glance, he looked ahead.

Deliah reached out and pressed her hand to Danny's back, right in-between his shoulder blades. As expected, he stiffened at her touch. She then took her other hand and placed it at the small of his back. That too, stiffened. She smiled a small smile that no one could see.

"Good." she said to him, taking her hands away. "Keep your posture like that. Back straight, shoulders back, and," Deliah tapped the inside of his legs with one of her feet, and he moved his legs farther apart. "Make sure you have a low center of gravity." She said, answering his questioning look. She watched with amusement when what she was doing registered in her partner's somehow familiar blue eyes.

"Wait. You're . . . _helping_ me?" he asked, his voice full of disbelief.

"Yeah." She said, reaching over and positioning his arms so they were in a better position. She heard him mutter something under his breath. "What was that?"

"Nothing." Danny muttered under his breath. When all Deliah did was raise an unconvinced eyebrow, he rolled his eyes and said, "I said that I don't need your help. I don't need this self defense class. I can handle myself."

"Really?" Deliah asked, genuine interest in her voice.

"Yeah."

It took a second for her to realize that Danny wasn't going to offer up anything else. So she continued with her 'well-thought-out' plan.

"Alright, but you still need to make it look like you're doing something productive until the bell rings." Deliah said reasonably, walking over and positioning his arms so that they were in a position that could be either defensive or offensive, depending on what the situation was.

Danny rolled his eyes, "Please, Delaih. I could take you any day of the week if I wanted to."

Deliah walked around her friend and took up a basic martial arts position. "I'm sure you could." She said.

"What, you don't believe me?" he asked in a slightly challenging tone.

"I never said that." She told him. Danny's mouth turned up at the corners, and she saw a definite challenge in his eyes.

"No, but you were thinking it." He said, deepening his own stance ever-so-slightly.

"No, actually, I was thinking that you wouldn't hurt me. It's more in your nature to protect." At this statement, Danny flashed a dazzling grin at her.

"Yeah, but there's always my pride to defend."

"That's true. But you won't be doing a very good job once I throw you on the mat sixteen times." Deliah said, smiling when Danny took the bait.

"Oh, I don't know about that, Deliah. I think that you could do with a nice, hearty piece of humble pie." Deliah smiled. _Line, hook, and sinker_. She thought to herself as she cocked an eyebrow at her gym partner.

"Do I detect a challenge somewhere in there, Fenton?" she asked, beginning to circle around him. Undeterred, he continued to face her while moving in a circle as well, mirroring her.

"You can bet on it, Preston." He said. Deliah smiled, having every intent to do what the gym teacher had instructed her to do. She also felt a wave of satisfaction when she saw Danny eye her from shoe to forehead expertly, confirming her suspicions about her partner's defense capabilities.

_It's interesting what one can pick up on by making a simple observation._ Deliah mused to herself. Then, without warning, Deliah sprung forward, doing a front flip to cover more distance quickly, and threw another punch, this time aimed for her partner's chest.

Danny didn't even blink as he blocked her attack, but retaliated by attempting to 'sweep her off of her feet', which she avoided by taking a hold of one of his wrists and attempting to twist it into an uncomfortable position. It didn't surprise her when he took one of her arms with his spare hand and attempted to do the same. What did surprise her, however, was that when he did that, he also managed to knock her down. She smiled sweetly up at him before she brought his legs out from underneath him. He grinned widely at her, and she returned it. They both got up, and began attacking and defending. She punched, he blocked. He counterattacked, she dodged.

They were equally matched. Deliah was agile, flexible, and had years of both professional and street-style fighting experience, not to mention years of gymnastics. Danny, however, was strong, stable, yet knowledgeable with what he was doing. His style was unique, as if he had developed it all on his own, making sure that he capitalized on his strengths. For some reason, Deliah found this style achingly familiar, but she pushed the thought away. She could ponder that later. She had a fight (or a _self defense practice_) to concentrate on.

They moved gracefully together, even if it was their intent to knock the other down. They were not without their own personal weaknesses: Deliah wasn't nearly as strong as Danny, he had a lot more muscle behind the punches he threw, and since he was more muscular, his blows were not only more forceful, (even though they were light and not meant to inflict damage) but it would take more to knock him down then it would someone who was lighter. That being said, since he was heavier, he was also a bit slower. Deliah was lighter, therefore making it easier for her to get out of the way of Danny's oncoming attacks. Also, since Danny's fighting style was obviously self taught, it capitalized on his strengths. This meant that Deliah had to hit his weak points, which _was_ more on the difficult end, but it was twice as effective then hitting him some other way, or somewhere else.

"Had enough?" Danny asked as Deliah ducked out of the way of one of his kicks.

"Not a chance, Fenton." She said with a gleam in her eyes.

They continued with their brawl for a few more minutes, and, after a while, they both began to get a bit tired. Finally, Deliah swept one of her legs underneath Danny, effectively knocking him down. However, Danny's legs got tangled up with Deliah's legs on the way to meet the floor, which made her trip and take a tumble to meet the sparring mat. They both looked up and over at each other, and simultaneously burst into laughter.

"Well, I guess that I was right." Deliah said, reaching up to grasp her partner's hand as he helped her stand up.

"Right about what?" Danny asked as they both started their cool-down stretches.

"You. What you were hiding." Deliah said, arching her back as she stretched. She smiled to herself when Danny did a double take in her direction.

"Huh?"

"Weren't you paying any attention earlier?" Deliah asked in mock exasperation. "You bent over to tie your shoe, and I saw a few inches of your waist."

"Yeah. So?"

Deliah rolled her eyes. Did she have to spell it out for the guy? Apparently so. "You're fit, Danny. I don't want this to completely fly over your head again, so I'll make it quick: as I just said, you are fit, and you can fight. Very well, if the past class period was any indication." She told him. She looked over at her partner, and turned to face him when she saw that he had stopped stretching.

"Wait." Danny said, holding up one hand, obviously processing what had just been said. "You _knew_ that I could hold my own?"

Deliah reaised an eyebrow, a smile on her face; a clear example of a non-verbal '_Duh'_.

"What, . . . then why?" Danny asked, looking both confused and flustered. Just as Deliah was about to answer him, he asked another question. "How? Yeah. You saw, what? Three inches worth of my side? How the heck did you figure out that I could hold my own from just a little bit of exposure?"

Deliah shrugged. "It was more of an observation, really. And everyone's got something to hide." When Deliah saw Danny's evident confusion, she smiled as she explained. "You know I'm an artist, right? Well, not an _artist_ artist, but I like to draw?" her gym partner nodded. "Well, one of the key things about drawing is showing people something new. If I draw a thousand different pictures of the same thing, I would hope that each picture would show something that someone wouldn't normally see. If I drew a bunch of a . . ." Deliah quickly racked her mind for a good example. Fortunately, she didn't need to think, since Danny was kind enough to offer up a suggestion.

"A meadow?"

"Sure, that works. Thanks. If I drew a bunch of meadow pictures, then I wouldn't do the same picture over and over again. I would do a bunch of completely different shots, with each picture capitalizing on a different thing. And if I looked at that meadow a certain way, I would start to make different observations. Maybe I would notice that some of the trees have scorched bark, and I would take note of the fact that there were a lot more new plants then older plants, or something like that. My conclusion would be that a fire had happened recently." Deliah told her raven haired counterpart.

"While that _is_ impressive, you're starting to sound like a science professor. And how does any of this relate to me?" Danny asked.

Deliah smiled as she rolled her eyes. "It relates because I know how to look for small things. Stuff that other people might overlook is what I go out of my way to look for. And since people generally have something to hide, I try to work it out. I like to solve puzzles.

Danny blinked. "So you know that I could take you . . . by seeing my torso?" Deliah could tell from his voice that he was impressed. She nodded.

"Like I just said, everyone's got something to hide. Some people are really good at hiding their secrets, others aren't. What I try to do is figure them out." At this, Danny seemed to almost choke on his own saliva.

"Secret? What do you know?"

Deliah raised an eyebrow. "Apparently less than I thought. But, I know that you're really happy with your relationship with Sam, that you miss Tucker whenever he's off doing his job as the mayor, that you don't make the best grades, yet they are improving, and that you do _some_ sort of extra-curricular that keeps you in shape." Deliah said, ticking each one off on a finger as she listed them.

Danny looked surprised. "Wow. I'm going to guess that you didn't just figure those out."

She smiled winningly. "Nope. I'm just reciting what I've observed the past month that I've been here." Now it was a different emotion that was showing itself on the blue eyed adolescent's face.

"Again, I'm impressed." He told her. She shrugged.

"I try." She paused before adding, "I haven't cracked down on you entirely yet. I need to do a bit more work before I figure you out."

"What?"

"You still have something that you're hiding. Obviously you've been hiding it for a while, but I'm sure I'll figure it out sooner or later." Deliah said cheerily. At these words, Deliah felt a small, yet unexpected jerk deep in her gut. She winced ever-so-slightly, but just as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished. Fortunately, Danny didn't seem to notice the brief flash of uneasiness she experienced, and she was glad; she didn't want to have to explain her occasional stomach cramps to him.

"And I'll do the same." She heard Danny say. She looked over at him, mystified.

"Do the same for what?" she asked.

"Figure out what you're hiding. I may not be an artist who's trained to always notice the details wherever I go, but I can still tell that you're hiding something, and I intend to find out what."

Even though Deliah's stomach dropped down to her feet, she didn't miss a beat in responding. "Good luck with that. I can be a hard book to read."

Danny looked over at her, his eyes bright with mischief. "Cool. I've always liked a challenge." The two blue eyed teenagers gave each other small smiles. Just then, Miss Tetslaff blew her whistle, telling everyone to go and change out of their gym clothes. Just before they parted ways, Danny stopped her.

"Deliah, wait." He said, sticking his arm out to stop her form walking towards the girl's locker room. "I want to introduce you to someone after class. Do you think you could spare fifteen minutes?" In seeing how she was lightly hesitant, he added with a grin, "Don't worry. It's not one of Tucker's political friends."

Deliah laughed, mirth evident in her voice. "Sure thing, Danny. I'll only be a few minutes in there." She said, gesturing towards the locker room. Danny nodded as she walked into the locker room, wondering who wanted to meet her . . . and why.

Deliah quickly slipped into the girl's locker room, vanished from sight, and switched back into her usual boot-cut red slacks, sneakers, and long sleeved blue, red, and white shirt. Then, she stepped out of the locker room, reappearing as she did so. She discreetly looked around to see if anyone had noticed the sudden appearance of a student, and; seeing that her secret was intact, walked forward to hunt down Danny. She found him talking with Sam and Tucker. Hesitantly, she approached them. It was Sam who spotted her first.

"Hey Deliah. What's going on?" the environmentally-concerned Goth asked. Delaih shrugged, shouldering her backpack.

"Hi Sam, Tucker. Not much. I just need to meet someone." The ghost powered girl moved her eyes to her raven haired friend. "And speaking of which, are you going to tell me who it is, or am I just going to blindly walk through this like a deer in headlights?"

Danny rolled his eyes. "It's my sister, Jazz. She heard me talking about you, and that you were in her Trigonometry class, and she wanted to meet you. It's no big deal, but I figured that today was as good as any, especially considering that she saw you talking to Dash yesterday." He said nonchalantly.

"Your sister?" Deliah asked. When Danny nodded, she shrugged. "Okay, sure. You said that she's in my Trigonometry class?"

"Well, not in the same class period, but you both have Trig with Mrs. Laughspurt, and she's impressed that a sophomore is in her level of math. Jazz, not Mrs. Laughspurt." Danny said absent-mindedly as he looked over Tucker's shoulder to see what was on his friend's PDA screen. Sam caught Deliah's eye, and they both smirked and rolled their eyes simultaneously. When the bell rang, the foursome walked out of the gym together. Deliah couldn't help but be a bit relieved at this. Ever since the big confrontation the day before, she'd been getting the evil eye all day, and, quite frankly, she was glad to have some friends walk with. _And_, she thought to herself, _Sam, Danny, and Tucker are taking all of these starts rather well. _It was true. The trio of friends seemed completely unaffected by all the stares that the A-listers were throwing their way for walking with her.

Since Deliah didn't know where this Jazz was, she figured that she would be best off following Danny and his friends. It wasn't long before Danny waved his friends good-bye, and was leading her out to the school's side yard. There, he stopped next to a girl who looked to be a few years older than her, auburn hair, intelligent eyes, and a light blue head band that matched her Capri's.

"Hey Jazz." Danny said casually. "You said that you wanted to meet Deliah, so here she is. Jazz, Deliah. Deliah, Jazz." Danny said, inclining his head towards each girl as he said their names. Deliah looked Danny's sister up and down before she stuck out her hand.

"Hi there. It's nice to meet you, Jazz."

Jazz took Deliah's hand in her own without hesitation. "Believe me, the pleasure is all mine. Danny's talked a lot about you." When Deliah raised an interested eyebrow, Jazz smiled. "Don't worry. I've only heard good things."

"Thanks." Deliah said. For some reason she couldn't explain, she felt that Danny's sister was someone she could trust. In fact, the feeling was getting stronger, which was unusual. Most of the time, the trust feeling was deep in her gut, almost instinctual. This was . . . getting more potent, like it wasn't her instincts telling her she could trust Jazz . . . it was more like someone was pushing the feeling into her, trying to make sure she felt it. It was beginning to get overwhelming. She didn't even notice when Jazz dropped her hand.

"Danny, are you alright?" Deliah heard Jazz ask. All of a sudden, the feeling stopped. Deliah looked over at Danny, and saw that he was bent over with his hands on his knees, panting, which made no sense. All he'd been doing was standing there . . . Deliah shook off the thought as she dug through her backpack to find her bottle of water. He took it gratefully when she offered it to him.

"I'm fine, Jazz." Danny said after taking a few gulps of water. "I just . . . got a bit dizzy. Deliah really put me through my paces during gym class." At this, the said female foster child shrugged, getting the feeling that Jazz wanted to talk with her brother alone.

"Well, I need to get moving. Mrs. Jackie said that she was going to need my help today, since a few of the kids are sick." She said. Deliah turned back to face Jazz. "It was really nice to meet you, Jazz." We should study together sometime or something." She said as she started walking away.

_Well, that trusting feeling thing was weird_. Deliah mused as she started walking to St. Alice's. She shrugged the thought off, and moved on to a more pleasant one._ Danny seems to have a nice family. I'd bet it would be interesting to live with them._

**Sorry, I had to throw in that last bit. ^^ And I really am sorry for taking such a long time to get this up. My only excuses were that I was busy, and didn't have much motivation. But, even though there wasn't much to this chapter, I promise that some things will kick back up. I won't tell you what, but I'll give you a hint, since I really don't feel like getting ready for bed. You ready? Good. Vlad. Josh. Agent J. Have I said enough? I hope so, since I can only say so much. Until next time everyone!**

**Keep laughing.**


	18. The Feeling Behind a Conversation

**What can I say? I have an actual life. But at least I have something up for the holiday season! All I really have to say is thank you for sticking around. I have so much fun with Deliah's story, and I'm glad I can make someone's day a bit brighter. Today, we get to hear what Deliah thinks to be her life story. **

**This chapter is dedicated to my amazing friend, Mary Penelope! Happy Birthday, girl!  
**

**Disclaimer:**** Yeah, it's been a few months since I've updated, but my ownership status hasn't changed from wishful thinking. Big surprise.**

**Chapter 18: The Feeling Behind a Conversation**

The St. Alice Orphanage had an empty feeling to it when Deliah arrived. Hesitantly, she took a few deep breaths and walked up the stairs to one of the rooms that a couple of kids shared. Sure enough, she found Mrs. Jackie there, leaning over a child, tucking a blanket underneath their chin. It was at times like these that Deliah really admired the orphanage's caretaker. Mrs. Jackie was getting older, a surrogate grandmother to so many people, kind, and always ready to help any child who might be in need. Deliah walked quietly over to help the elderly woman stand up.

"Oh, thank you, Deliah dear." Mrs. Jackie said, patting the raven haired girl's hand with her own.

"No problem, Mrs. Jackie." Deliah said, looking at the kids in bed. "Hey, why don't you take a break? I can watch these guys for a while. You take a rest."

Mrs. Jackie smiled, small lines appearing around her eyes, evidence that her smile was a frequent visitor to her face. "Well, I appreciate that, sweetie. But I don't want you to get sick, too."

Deliah waved her remark away. "I'll be fine. There's hand sanitizer over on the counter, and I promise to not drink or eat anything that they might have touched." She gave the caretaker a winning smile, which was warmly returned.

"Alright, Deliah dear. I really do appreciate you do this. I'll be able to get supper started." Mrs. Jackie gave the teenaged girl one more pat in the hand before she walked out of the room, leaving the younger girl alone with the sick and sleeping kids.

Deliah sighed as she looked down at the two kids. Both were knocked out cold. She sank into a nearby chair, sanitized herself because she could, and dug around in her bag for her new sketchbook. Yeah, Danny had given her her old one back, but all of that blank paper with nothing on it was taunting her, to some extent. She flipped to the first clean page, and pulled out a pencil, wondering what to stamp onto the page. As she was thinking, she heard the door open. Looking over, she saw that a small face was peering over at her. She smiled at the young face.

"Hi Benjamin. You can come on in, just make sure not to wake up Christopher and Timmy. They're sick." The little boy nodded, and walked on tiptoe over to look at what was in her lap. Seeing nothing, he looked up at her, a question on his face.

"Dee Dee, there's nothing there." He said matter-of-factly.

"I know. I'm thinking of what to draw."

"Why?" Benjamin asked.

"Why am I thinking about what to draw?"

"Yeah." The little boy said, sitting cross-legged on the floor next to her chair. "Why do you need to think about it? Can't you just do whatever you feel like doing?" the six-year-old inquired.

Deliah tipped her head to the side as she thought. "I don't know. I guess. I just want whatever I draw to be the best as it can be. I want it to be perfect." She said thoughtfully.

"But why does it need to be perfect?" Benjamin asked, his bright brown eyes full of curiosity.

"I like whatever I do to be top quality." Deliah told the young brown haired boy, shrugging.

Benjamin, apparently, didn't like her answer, and, with a mischievous glint in his eyes, took her sketchpad from her lap. Usually, Deliah didn't let anyone take her sketchbook, but Benjamin was one of her favorite kids that took up residence at the orphanage. The poor guy's dad had been killed in Afghanistan before he was born, and his mother had died only seven months previously. He'd been at St. Alice's a lot longer then she had, but she had no idea why. He was the sweetest kid. Deliah was sure he could get adopted within three days if he tried. But, strangely, he was perfectly happy to hang around at St. Alice's. Not that Deliah minded, he was really fun to have around.

Deliah sat back in her chair and stretched her legs while Benjamin hunched over her sketchbook. After a few minutes, the small boy placed her sketchpad back on her lap upside down. Seeing his eager expression, she smiled, and flipped over the sketchbook so she could see whatever it was that he had made on the other side. It was . . . a crab. A bit crudely and cartoon-ishly drawn, but it was definitely a crab.

"Aw. This is nice, Benjamin. Thanks." Deliah said, taking in the drawing. _Benjamin's pretty good._ She mused to herself. She was just about to close the sketchbook when Benjamin put his small hand on the crab. Deliah looked over at him, and raised a mystified eyebrow.

"Dee Dee, it's not finished yet." He told her.

"What's not finished yet?"

"The picture. It's your turn." The little boy said, handing the ghost powered foster child a pencil. Deliah took it, unsure of what to do. Benjamin, seeing her uncertainty, explained further. "Give him an apron, hat, trombone, anything. You have to make it fun." He said with a grin.

"Why?" Deliah asked, not quite understanding the purpose of what the kindergartner was doing.

"To finish the picture. Add anything you want to. It's just to have fun. Isn't that what drawing's for?" he asked innocently. Seeing the confusion still present on her face, he added one more thing. "You can't do anything wrong. No matter what you do, it'll be right."

Deliah got a small inkling of what the tyke was saying. Gripping the pencil, she looked at Benjamin out of the corner of her eye as she began to add a moustache and bowler hat to the crustacean. Then, just because she felt like it, she threw in a pipe. Once she was finished, she tucked the pencil behind her ear, and turned the picture so that it faced the six-year-old. "How's that?" she asked him.

Benjamin nodded and gave her a toothy grin. "That's great, Dee Dee!" he excitedly took the sketchbook from the ghost girl's lap to study it more closely. He giggled at the moustache. Just then, a mischievous look crossed his face, and he quickly left the room. Mystified, Deliah stood up, cast a glance over at the sick boys who were sleeping, and followed the sounds Benjamin was making up to her room, which she found odd. Wouldn't it make sense for him to go into his own room? Shrugging it off, she pushed open the door. There, she found the six-year-old trying to tape the picture of the crab on the wall beside her bed. Benjamin, being the tyke he was, had taped the bottom corners first, and was having problems reaching the top two. Smiling, Deliah walked up behind him and picked him up so he could complete his task. She set him back down once he was finished with his handiwork. They both stood back to admire it.

"That really is a nice crab, Benjamin. I don't think that I could draw that good at your age. Keep it up, and you'll be the next Leonardo DaVinchi."

"Oh." The little boy's brow furrowed as he went deep into six-year-old contemplation. After a moment, he looked up at her very seriously. "No thanks. I don't want to be like Leodardno VaGinchie."

Deliah smiled. "And why is that?" she asked.

"I've never heard of him. He can't be that good."

"Oh. So you only want to be like the people you do know?" Deliah asked with a raised eyebrow and a twinkle in her eye.

"Yeah. Like Mrs. Jackie. She's nice. She reminds me of my mama. And Danny Phantom! He's cool. He saved the world, _and_ he saved my mommy. Before she died." Benjamin got quiet before he continued. "She was on a school bus that fell off the road. Danny Phantom saved her and the rest of the kids on the bus." Deliah recalled that Benjamin's mother had been an elementary school teacher. And the fact that Benjamin's mom had been saved by Phantom made her happy to be able to work with the ghost hero. She made a mental note to thank him the next time that she saw him. Deliah sat down on her bed and smiled at the small brunette before her.

"That's awesome, Benjamin. I think it's really smart to look up to the people you know personally." She said to him.

The brown eyed boy looked up. grinning, he climbed on the bed next to her and wrapped his arms around her mid-section. "I look up to you too, Dee Dee."

Startled, Deliah looked down. Benjamin was still hugging her, with a content look on his face and his eyes shut. She put a tentative arm around the little boy. "Me?" she asked.

"Yeah. You always make time for me, you treat me like a big kid, and you don't treat me different because my daddy died over the ocean." He said, his words beginning to get drowsy. Even though sleep was clearly making its way into the boy's voice and breathing patterns, he continued. "You're really nice to everybody. You're super smart, and you're not mad at the world, even though you never knew your Mommy or Daddy. You're like a hero." The little boy continued to mumble incoherently until he trailed off, lost in the land of child dreams.

Smiling, Deliah scooped up Benjamin, and carried him down the stairs to his bedroom. She gently placed him on his bed, and pulled the covers up over him. She cast him a fond glance before she left his room. In a daze, she walked over to a nearby chair and sat down. Little Benjamin thought that she was a . . . hero? Her. Deliah Preston. The girl who didn't even know her middle name. Deliah sat back with a grin on her face. What amazed her most was that it was her Preston side that had been called heroic. Phantom had joked with her Phantom side that she would be called a hero eventually. She'd laughed at the notion then, and hadn't really thought much about it, simply rolling her eyes in response. Now, that someone had associated the actual word with her, it carried something. And it was even more significant to Deliah because the things that Deliah Preston did were in private most of the time, whereas Deliah Phantom's deeds were much more public. That didn't mean that Deliah thought anything more or less of which form she took when she helped others, or how she did her deeds. It just went to show that someone was always taking notice of seemingly small and unimportant acts. Deliah couldn't help it; she broke out into a bright grin. She sat back and took in a deep breath of air.

Deliah didn't know how long she sat there, smiling over a six-year-old's comment, but before long, Mrs. Jackie stuck her head around the hallway corner, and asked if she was up to helping with dinner. Flashing her smile at the older woman, Deliah nodded, pushed her hair away from her face, and stood up to follow the older woman. She smiled when she passed Benjamin's door, and continued into the kitchen. Once there, she began cutting up some vegetables for the stew that Mrs. Jackie was in the process of making.

The two females, one teenaged and the other elderly, cut, chopped, and sliced in companionable silence. It was Mrs. Jackie that broke the quiet. "Deliah, dear, I've been wanting to talk with you for a while now, and you always seemed to be so busy, that I never got the chance. I figure that now is as good as time as any." Deliah looked up from dicing the potatoes and carrots and lifted one curious eyebrow at the orphanage's caretaker.

"Okay, sure." Deliah said, shrugging. "I'm game. Ask away."

The older woman nodded, and was silent for a moment before she began speaking. "Now, honey, I want you to know first off that I don't mean to pry, and I want you to just tell me if I over step my bounds." She looked over at the raven haired teenager, who nodded for her to continue. "The state has a bunch of rules, regulations, and whatnot about foster children, orphans, and how the orphanages are run. You know that." Deliah nodded, no new news there. She knew how complex the system was and how it worked, she'd been in it all her life.

"Well, one of those is that I look over anyone's file if they stay here at the orphanage longer than a week or so. Just so that caretakers like me get an idea of who we're dealing with, how long they've been in the system, stuff like that. I just remembered the other day that I hadn't looked over yours, Sugar, so I pulled it out while you were at school and while most of the kids were taking a nap. The contents surprised me." Mrs. Jackie said, scooping all of Deliah's neatly cut and peeled potatoes and carrots into a pot of boiling water. Deliah didn't say anything, simply moved to cutting the celery, her stomach sinking down to her sneakers as she began to foresee where the conversation was likely headed.

"Deliah, honey, the file said that you were a 'problem child', that you don't have any good chances for a successful future, and that you have a mental problem that makes you difficult to be around." By this time, Mrs. Jackie had stopped working all together and was simply watching Deliah, who was cutting up the celery with a renewed force, as if by hearing the sound the knife made on the cutting board enough times would stop the uncomfortable silence that was now occupying the kitchen. Personally, Deliah had never heard such a loud silence.

A sharp pain coming from her left hand snapped the ghost powered girl out of her sulking thoughts. Looking down, she saw that she had managed to slice her fingertips while cutting the celery. Gritting her teeth in frustration and irritation, Deliah put the sharp utensil down and moved towards the sink, where she began running warm water over her wound. After she finished cleaning the cut of any celery remains, she turned to find Mrs. Jackie already there with bandages at the ready. Gratefully, Deliah offered up her hand to the older woman, who led her over to a few chairs that had been set out in case a certain child needed to have an eye kept on them at all times. Deliah winced as gauze was applied to her injury, and bandages wrapped around her hand. Once the older woman was finished, she flexed her hand, and gave the caretaker a small smile. She was just about to stand up when the blue eyed girl felt a warm hand on her shoulder.

"Sugar plum, I know that you really don't want to have this conversation, but I think it's something that we need to do. Now." Mrs. Jackie's voice was gentle but firm. Deliah let out a defeated gust of air.

"Okay. I'll explain myself." Deliah sat back and tried to think of where to start. "Actually, I'll just tell you my life story, it'll be easier." The black haired teenager took in a deep breath, and felt the kind eyes of the orphanage's caretaker fixate on her face. Taking in another deep breath, she tried to organize her thoughts. She knew where to start, but that didn't make it any easier to say. "Keep in mind that I've never told anyone everything before, so it might take some time." She warned. Mrs. Jackie frowned when she heard that.

"Oh, Sweetie. You don't need to tell me _everything_. I just-"

"No." Deliah said in a firm voice that surprised her. "I want someone to know. And anyway, it'll clear everything up. I think." She said. Deliah hesitated before she began, and in that moment, felt the room shift slightly, as if there might be someone watching her, but that was impossible. She told herself. She was in clear view of both doors that went into the kitchen, and her ghost sense would have gone off if a ghost was anywhere near her. So, shaking off the feeling, she began.

"I was born into a set of twins. My twin was-_is_ a guy. My parents . . . apparently they either didn't want another kid or couldn't afford one, so they kept my brother, and put me up for adoption. They left me only my first name. Well, the nurse that dropped me off filled out the forms with the name my parents had given me. I was taken in by my first pair of foster parents two weeks later. They kept me for seven or eight months before finding out that they were expecting a baby of their own and taking me back. I was taken in my more foster parents. I've never been able to keep an address for any longer then twelve months." Deliah said to her knees. Looking up, she saw Mrs. Jackie's eyes begin to water.

"Oh, Honey Lamb, I'm so sorry." She said to the ghost girl.

Deliah shrugged. "I've grown up with it, Mrs. Jackie. I don't know any different. Anyway, there's not much left to my story. I learned at an early age to keep quiet, be polite, respectful, and to occupy myself without taking up much space. That's why I started drawing. You can do it anywhere, and it's pretty therapeutic. Once I was half-way through elementary school, I realized that the only way to have a secure future would be to excel academically. So I threw myself at my school work. I usually didn't stay in one place long enough to participate in any extracurricular activities, so I never really bothered with those. A lot of the time I had teachers or professors as my foster parents, so I made sure I was good at ever subject. A couple of times a family took me in that was really big with a certain activity. You know, like gymnastics, martial arts, wild life survival, stuff like that. So whenever I got a family like that, I'd join in on their chosen activities. That's how I managed to learn gymnastics and martial arts." Deliah paused for a moment to catch her breath and wet her lips before continuing. "So, that's it, really." She said after thinking a moment and realizing that there was nothing left to tell that didn't involve any sort of paranormal activity.

"Deliah, honey, why did you do that?" Mrs. Jackie asked gently after a moment of silence.

"Do what?"

"You said that you made sure you were good at all of your subjects for the foster parents you might have had so . . . what? So they'd be impressed with you?" the older woman's brow was furrowed with confusion.

"Not exactly." Deliah said. "Sometimes people can be cruel, and . . . I just didn't want to give my foster parents another reason to not like me. If you keep your head down, and don't draw any attention to yourself, you'll be fine. It's just . . . easier."

"And is that the same reason you took up all of those other activities?" Mrs. Jackie wondered aloud.

The ghost girl nodded. "Uh huh. And, in any case, the martial arts and gymnastics have come in handy a lot lately. We're doing a self-defense unit in gym at school." Deliah quickly explained, seeing the older woman's brief look of panic and bewilderment. _Not to mention all the times it's come in handy while fighting ghosts with Danny Phantom._ She thought to herself.

"But sweetie, you're making it sound like you had to do those things in order to keep yourself safe." Mrs. Jackie said worriedly.

"Sometimes that's what the situation called for." Deliah said in a voice that resonated with experience.

"But not every person is like that. You can't assume that every person is untrustworthy. You don't need to always be so guarded." Mrs. Jackie told her.

"I know. I've had some really great people as my foster parents, Mrs. Jackie. There are some really amazing people in this world. I know that. But there's also some people who are just cruel, and sometimes it's better to be safe than sorry." Deliah said in a quiet voice that carried a lot of weight. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mrs. Jackie being to say something, but decide against it. When the raven haired teenager looked over, her gaze was met by understanding, yet said, eyes.

"Then why does it say on your file that you are . . . mentally unstable?" the caretaker asked a bit hesitantly.

"Hm? Oh. A couple of years ago, I heard that my file had been tampered with. It was the result of a bored intern, I heard."

The older woman sitting next to her looked furious. "An intern did that? Oh, Hon, I am so sorry. Someone couldn't manage to find a way to entertain themselves for an hour, and they put lies in some innocent child's system files? They could have tarnished your record forever! That is wrong on so many levels. Don't you worry, Sugar. I'm going to go over to the file room right this minute and fix that. There's no reason that that should be there." The elderly woman rose to her feet and marched out of the kitchen before sticking her head back in through the doorway. "Oh, and Deliah? Could you be a peach and start chopping the onions? Try not to cut your hand this time, Sweet Pea." She said kindly before marching off to fix the foster child's file. Deliah had just moved up and off of her chair when Mrs. Jackie's head popped back in through the doorway. "And Sugarcane? Thank you for telling me all of that. I know it wasn't easy for you, and I'm glad you trust me enough to share all that with me." And with that, the grandmother figure to many was gone.

Shaking her head and smiling, Deliah walked over to the pile of chopped celery, picked up the knife that she had cut herself with, walked over to the sink, washed it, dug out an onion, and began chopping. While the sharp onion's scent made her eyes prick, Deliah felt like a load had been taken off her shoulders. It felt good to share your problems with someone. And, for some strange reason, she felt as if another part of her was thinking over what she had said. She had to admit, it was nice having the sad, pathetic story of her life out, even if it was to one person. Smiling, she continued to cut up the onions, thinking of all the conversations that she'd had that day, and the different reactions and responses she'd gotten from each one.

***whew* I'm out of breath. Anyway, I really hope you liked it. I've been wanting to have a cute little boy in this story for the longest time. And I really wanted to get more of Mrs. Jackie out there. A shout out goes to Mary Penelope, who came up with little Benjamin's name.**

**I promise to update faster than once every few months. I just need to manage my time better.**

**Have a happy Holiday season! Much love,**

**-Alex**


	19. Desperate Times

**Apparently, I've become one of those people who only updates once every four months. For that, I apologize, because I remember saying that I would try harder. But, I have a valid reason for being offline. My grandpa died. So I hope you guys'll understand when I say that I'm discontinuing The Discovery of Deliah Phantom. . . Ha. I'm totally kidding. I really hope that none of you think that I would willingly give up this story. I wouldn't. And as long as I'm still alive, know that until the 'complete' is attached to the story stats, I will continue to update, no matter how far apart the updates may be. Now, sap aside, I have a few things to say. And they are going to be revealed after the disclaimer! Enjoy! Oh, and Grandpa Sam? This one's for you. You always encouraged me to do what I love. I'll never forget you Grandpa, and I promise that we'll all take care of Nana.**

**Disclaimer: Even though I've been away for the past age and forever, my ownership status of Danny Phantom has not changed. Oh, and the comment Deliah tells to the reporters didn't come from me either. I'm not that creative. It came from Mary Penelope, who has kindly agreed to let our heroine with some serious kick-buttitude say it. Once again, me no own Danny Phantom!**

**Chapter 19: Desperate Times**

The next day after school, Deliah was walking through the park on her way back to St. Alice's for a change of pace from her normal walking home routine. At that thought, the corner of her mouth quirked up in a half smile. _Huh._ Deliah mused as she looked around the park. _I've__ actually __gotten __used __to __thinking __of __St. __Alice's__ as __home. __I__ wonder __when __that __happened._ Deliah had been to a lot of foster homes, but this was the first time she had considered her place of residence as her home. Her quirked smile turned genuine. _I__ guess __that __I'm__ a __lot __more __comfortable __around __the __people __here. __Despite __all __the __spectral __activity._ She added as an afterthought. Smiling, Deliah took in a deep breath. She paused, frowned, and inhaled once more. The air had the subtle scent of barbecue. And not the meat kind.

Looking around nonchalantly, Deliah walked behind a tree, slipping into her spectral alter ego as she did so. Quickly, she slew up to get a bird's eye view of the city. It didn't take long for her to notice a dark cloud coming from a housing complex on the far end of town. Without a moment's hesitation, she shot off. As she drew closer, she felt her stomach drop. As she had first suspected, it wasn't a barbecue. It was a house fire. _No,_ Deliah thought, as she squinted through the smoke to see more clearly. _Not__ a __house __fire, __it __looks __more __like __an __apartment __fire._ As that thought made it's way into her head, Deliah's eyes hardened with a determination to not let this fire be like the last one she had been a part of.

Arriving at the scene, Deliah saw that the Amity Park Fire Department had shown up, and was trying desperately to put out the fire. Deliah was no professional, but it looked like they were fighting a lost cause. The apartment building was one of those that was located in the poorer part of the city, and it was a pretty old building to boot. In short, a couple of streams of water, no matter how powerful, weren't going to do didley squat. After coming to this conclusion, Deliah hurried over to a nearby firefighter, who was listening to his radio.

". . . levels way off the charts. Several people have made it outside, but we have very good reason to believe that there is another dozen of people inside. . . " Deliah left when she heard that last part. _There__ are __still __people __inside __that __building._ She said to herself_.__I__ need __to __help. __But __how?__ I __don't __know __how__ flammable __my __Phantom__ form __is._ Deliah Phantom attempted to take in a deep breath to calm herself, but that backfired when a majority of the air she sucked in was smoke. As she coughed to clear her airways, someone tapped her shoulder. Turning, she saw Phantom, with a worried expression clear as day on his face.

"What's going on here?" he asked.

"Apartment fire." Deliah responded, still coughing. "From what I can gather, there's still some people inside." At these words Phantom's eyes hardened in a manner that the ghost girl found strangely familiar, but she pushed it away. Lots of things about the guys in her life were 'strangely familiar'. Right now, she had more important things to worry about.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Phantom asked her, jumping into the air. Seeing her brief hesitation, he said, "Come on, we have to help." Deliah nodded and jumped up to join him. They both flew up to the burning building together. Once they were a certain distance away, the green eyed girl saw her male counterpart charge up his hands, which alarmed her. Firing any sort of plasma beam at the building would result in having the structure turn into a pile of rubble.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Phantom didn't even look her way. "Fighting fire with ice." he said, not breaking his concentration. It was then that Deliah noticed that the aura around the ghost hero's hands was a light blue, not the characteristic bright green of a plasma beam. As she watched, Phantom fired his blue beam of energy, and saw how that whatever the beam touched, a thick layer of ice was left in it's wake. Deliah was so surprised, she nearly fell out of the air.

"You have _ice_ powers?"

Phantom looked over at her, and his neon green eyes sparked with dry amusement at the sight of her expression. "Yeah. But let's discuss secret powers later. Right now, we need to get those people out of that building."

That statement prioritized the mission. "Right." the white haired girl agreed. Taking in a small lung-full of air that was mostly smoke-free, Deliah dived down towards the burning building after the ghost hero with the cryogenic powers. She waited until Phantom had frozen some of the building's structure, and then she dived into the building, searching to find anything that could be someone trapped. It wasn't long before she spotted what looked to be a father in a protective position around two children. All three of them were passed out, probably from breathing in too many toxic fumes.

Flying quickly over, Deliah checked the vitals of the three people before she took a hold of the father, placed him in the fireman's hold over her shoulders, then took a child in each arm. Grunting, she made sure each person was securely in her grasp before she flew out of the building intangibly to the gathered emergency persona a safe distance away. She placed the man and the two kids on stretchers, where there were paramedics waiting, while Phantom came out of the building with an old lady.

"Deliah." Phantom said to her in a low, serious voice. "There's a bunch of people still on the upper floor. But the fire is so bad up there that it would be impossible for me to get everyone up there out alone. Even though I'm a ghost, I'm by no means fireproof."

"What about your ice powers?" Deliah asked, slightly confused. Even if the fire was bad, ice could still keep the fire from spreading.

"I don't really want to use them" Phantom told her. "The heat up there is pretty intense, and would likely melt the ice before it even left my hands. The structure up there is really weak right now too, and I don't think that-" he was cut off by his spectral look-alike.

"Then right now would be an excellent time to use them! Do you really think that frozen or even wet support beams are worse then ones that are crumbling to bits because they're nothing but ash and soot because they're _burning_?" Deliah was shouting now, levitating a good three feet off the ground, while several people looked on. "Fire is dangerous, and causes nothing but destruction." She said, her eyes flashing and even brighter green. Then, before anyone would react in any way, shape, or form, she rocketed off to the inside of the top floor of the building.

Once inside, Deliah attempted to call out to see if anyone was there, but the smoke got to her first. Her eyes immediately began to sting, and her throat began to ache. Coughing, the ghost heroine tried to ease her symptoms by turning intangible, but the effort was in vain. The smoke seemed to be with her no matter what.

_Okay._Deliah said to herself grimly_.__This __is__ certainly __one __of __my __more __stupid __ideas. __Regardless, _she thought_, __I __need__ to__ find __the __people __who __are __trapped __up __here. __I__ won't __let __fire __destroy__ these __people's __lives__ along __with __their __home._

It was a heroic thought, but even the heroism of her character was not enough to keep the blistering heat and smoke away. Continuing to cough, Deliah squinted to try to see through the smoke. "Anyone there? I'm here to help. Where are you?" she shouted into the crumbling building. The only response she got was a rafter falling down in front of her, sending up a shower of burning embers. Without thinking, she brought up her arms to shield herself. It was then, for a split second, that she felt all the heat surrounding her die down. She peeked open one of her closed eyes, expecting to see some ice somewhere in her surroundings. Instead, all that was different was that the burning rafter was no longer alight with fire, just a rather large charred stick. Seeing no one around, she looked at her gloved hands, which were letting off a very faint yellow aura. It was then that the ghost powered teenager remembered the ecto-plasmic fire at Crosswire Plaza. Her mind began to whir. Phantom's ice powers. Her incident with the specter she had learned was named Ember with the fiery hair in the Ghost Zone. "No way." she said, placing her hand on a burning section of wall. Instead of feeling the sensation of burning flesh and fabric, she simply felt a warm presence underneath her hand.

Going simply by a hunch, she squeezed her eyes shut and imagined the burning wall losing the fire and becoming a mass of black ash and soot, like the rafter. A moment later, Deliah felt something warm in her gut. Opening her eyes, she saw that she was now resting her hand upon a no-longer-burning mass of wall.

It was then that a chunk of ceiling fell just off to her right, which caused her to jump in alarm. _Wow, I've taken up too much time experimenting with this new power when I should be looking for people. How could I be so selfish? _She berated herself. She tried to take in another lung-full of air to calm herself, but all she got was smoke, which shouldn't have been surprising, being that she was inside a burning building, but she began coughing nonetheless. With tears streaming down her face due to the smoke, she made her way around to other sections of the building where the fire was most active, turning the areas into charred rooms. But all of her efforts were fruitless. She hadn't found anyone, and the fire was still consuming everything in sight, even with her newly discovered take-in-pyro-power. The building wasn't going to remain a standing structure for very much longer, unless the fire was put out.

At that thought, the Danny Phantom look-alike stopped. _Unless the fire was put out. The fire put out. _She mused._ I can take in fire. I could take in the entire floor's fire instead of just a few square feet at at time. But that might be too much for me to handle. I didn't even know I could do this fifteen minutes ago._ That was when she heard a faint voice calling for help. Deliah spun around, trying to find the source, but was met with room after room that was on fire. Her eyes steeled with determination and flashed a bright yellow.

"I have to try." she said aloud, flying towards the center of the floor. Once there, she braced herself, closed her eyes, breathed in, ignoring her lungs screaming in protest of the lack of clean air and focused. She imagined all of the fire in the entire building moving towards her. After a few seconds, the atmosphere around her grew very warm. She didn't open her eyes. Deliah knew that if she saw so much fire around her, she would panic, and even though she didn't know what would happen if she did panic, she was guessing that it probably wouldn't be good. _At all._ So she kept her eyes squeezed together as she took in another deep breath, berating herself as she did so, knowing that all would happen would be her getting her lungs even more filled with soot. Curiously, she didn't inhale any smoke, like she thought she would. The air was dry and hot, but from what she could tell; smoke-free. She took in another deep breath. And another. It was not long before she realized that with every breath she took, the temperature around her rose dramatically. She was going from a nice summer's day to a sauna over the course of three breaths. Deliah pushed the thought away. Hot temperatures meant that the fire was still in the building, and that was not good. She clenched her jaw and curled her hands into fists as she focused, trying to take the fire in. A few painstaking moments later, the ghost heroine felt her body temperature rise. It continued to do so until Deliah began to feel light headed. But she held on until she felt no more heat around her. It was then that she collapsed to the floor and changed back to human.

Deliah groaned and brought a hand to her forehead. She opened her eyes and saw that she had accomplished her mission. Everything around her was covered in a thick layer of soot, and some of what used to be furniture was smoldering, but there was no fire. Deliah let out a sigh of relief. It had been ambitious, taking in the entire building's fire, but she had done it. Barely. Deliah got the feeling that if she tried to take in anything more then a candle's flame anytime soon, her health would be put in jeopardy. Deliah blew her bangs away from her face, got unsteadily to her feet and changed back into her spectral counterpart.

"Hello?" she called out. "Anyone there?" This time, she heard a faint reply. Deliah Phantom flew over to where she heard the voices. She felt a wave of relief when she saw a small family huddled together against one wall. Judging by the smiles on their faces, they felt a similar wave of emotion at the sight of her. After a brief inventory, she found that the family had a few scraped and mild burns, but nothing too severe. She took up the three kids in her arms and told the mother and father to hold onto her before she turned everyone intangible and flew then out of the building to the stunned paramedics. She gave the children back to the parents, and was about ready to take off when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Startled, she looked down and saw that it was the mother. She had a good layer of grime all over from the fire, short blonde hair, and warm brown eyes. The woman looked a bit uncertain, but her eyes were wide and teary with gratitude.

"I-I just wanted to say thank you. You saved my family, and I can never repay you for what you did for us."

Deliah tilted her head to one side as she looked into the mother's eyes. The ghost girl shook her head. "It's what I'm here for, ma'am." she said quietly. But then the ghost girls eyes flashed with a look of fierce determination, making her eyes glow a brighter green then normal. The young mother looked a little worried when she saw this, and confused when the female Phantom took the mother's hands in her own and looked her dead in the eye.

"Actually, there is a way you can repay me." Deliah said in a voice that only the mother could hear. "Keep your kids close. Make sure they know that they're worth something, and that they're loved. Be there for them, and . . . do your job as a parent. Please. That's all I want from you and your husband."

The blonde woman blinked, and nodded, a few tears slipping out of the corners of her eyes. "I will, Miss . . ." she trailed off, realizing that she didn't know the ghost girl's name.

"Deliah." Deliah told the mother, giving the woman's hands a gentle squeeze. "My name is Deliah Phantom." At these words, the woman's eyes widened in surprise.

"Phantom? Are you Danny Phantom's sister or something? The two of you look incredibly alike, you know."

Deliah's smile tightened ever-so-slightly. "Uh . . . we're more like . . . cousins, in all honesty." she said, releasing the young mother's hands as she floated upward towards the sky. She was just about to turn around to jet off when she heard a voice behind her.

"My cousin, eh?" Deliah whipped around to find Phantom flying a few feet behind her with his arms crossed and an amused grin on his face.

"Well . . . I had to say _something_, didn't I?" she said huffily. A look of worry crossed her face. "You're okay with that, right? You won't, you know, blow my cover?"

Phantom put his hands up to let her know to relax. "Hey, I'm fine with having a famous ghost hero be in my family. You don't need to worry about me. You do however, need to worry about them." The famous hero said, tipping his head off to Deliah's right. Puzzled, she glanced over and saw a bunch of reporters just beyond the police tape. When they saw her looking at them, they began shouting questions at her and taking pictures. Quickly, the ghost girl turned back around to face her 'cousin'. Seeing the look of panic in her eyes, the said family member's face became sympathetic.

"Hey, it's okay. I've been dealing with them for a while. And while they're annoying, they aren't as bad as everyone thinks. But," he added, "I would probably talk to then sooner rather then later. Now that they've gotten wind of you, and since you just saved the day and all that."

Deliah looked at him, eyes wide. "Are you kidding? Uh . . . no. I'm all about staying away from the spotlight.

Phantom shrugged. "Like it or not, Cuz, this comes with the theme colors. Not that these colors were given to you intentionally or anything, but you might as well get the initial twenty questions over with, it gets easier after you continue with it all. I promise." he said. Deliah held his gaze for a long while before sighing in defeat.

"Fine. But you're coming down there with me." Phantom shrugged as he followed her down to the reporters. They were met by many flashes and several questions all at once.

"What's your name?"

"How long have you and Danny Phantom been dating?"

"Where did you come from?"

"When did you die?"

"How did you die?"

Deliah could barely keep her head straight. Her overwhelmed expression must have been evident since Phantom stepped forward. He help his hand up for silence and, like magic, the crowd fell silent.

"Easy, guys. She's new to this." He said calmly. "This is my cousin, Deliah. Yeah, we have the same last name. She's new to town, so play nice." he finished, stepping back. Deliah cautiously stepped forward. Instantly, the wave of questions began. Quickly copying what she had seen in the movies, she pointed at a reporter with blond hair and a nice suit. The questions stopped so that the reporter could ask his question and so that everyone could hear her response.

"Miss Phantom, how long do you plan on staying in Amity Park?" he inquired.

Deliah shrugged. "As long as I'm needed." She said. She quickly pointed at another reporter.

"Deliah, you've 'saved the day' twice so far. Here at the fire and at Crosswire Plaza. How does it feel?"

"It feels fine, I guess. I'm glad that I get to help. That's what I'm here for, after all. To help. To protect."

This time, a reporter yelled his question, "Give us a quote!"

The green eyed girl blinked in surprise. "A quote? Uh . . ." Deliah racked her brain, trying to remember something, anything she could use. She remembered overhearing two girls talking in one of her past schools about love. _It's as good as anything. _She thought. She cleared her throat. Everyone looked at her expectantly. "Love," she said clearly, "is like a brick wall. Someday, you're gonna run into it."

There was a moment's hesitation before all of the reporters burst into laughter. Deliah laughed lightly with them. Seeing that the laughs had not yet died down, she quickly jumped into the air, and was about to give a farewell, when a loud "Wait!" made her pause. She turned, and saw that Danny Phantom was hovering just a few feet away from her. Apparently, he had been ready to leave too. But that's not what grabbed her attention. What she took note of was the big, burly Hispanic man that was walking hurriedly towards her and Phantom. The two ghost heroes exchanged a mystified glance before returning their neon gazes to the man. He stopped just before them.

"Good day, Phantom cousins." he began. "I have been observing you for quite some time, and what occurred to me is that we need to have a little get together. Doesn't that sound nice? Just the two of you and sine nice people, and all of us getting to know one another. What do you say?" he asked. The two Phantoms blinked.

"A party? Is that what you said? You're throwing a party?" Deliah asked, trying to make sense of the handful of words she understood from the man's spiel. The man in question nodded earnestly.

"Yes. A formal party. Tomorrow night. At the Amity Park Country Club."

Danny Phantom shook his head, as if to clear it. "A party, huh? Well, I admit that I _would_ be nice to-" he was cut off by the Hispanic man.

"Excellent. My name is Marco Sanchez, by the way. I will see you both at the country club tomorrow night!" he said before walking off. There was a brief silence before all of the reporters started shouting out more questions. Deliah and Phantom exchanged glances before flying off together at the same time. They flew until they were well out of the view of anyone who would be at the scene of the fire. Once they stopped flying, Phantom brought his palm to his forehead.

"Ugh. What have I gotten into?" he moaned. Deliah let loose a heavy sigh.

"Something I'd really rather avoid attending." she admitted. "Any chance we could skip it? I'm not one for parties."

Phantom shook his head regretfully. "No, we've been sucked in by the cruelty that is being under the watchful eye of the public. Sorry. I've learned over the past few months that it's easier to just make a brief appearance. It won't be fun, but it won't kill us . . . again." he remarked dryly.

Deliah nodded, then frowned as a thought occurred to her. "Wait. He said that the party would be formal?" Phantom nodded. "Does that mean we'll need to . . . you know, dress up?" she asked in a voice growing with dread.

Phantom looked over at her with an understanding expression. "As much as I hate to say it, yeah. Showing up in our jumpsuits probably won't be the best idea. I don't know why this is happening, but my best guess is that it'll be smarter to be safe instead of sorry."

The white haired girl let out a gust of defeated air, blowing her bangs out of her face as she did so. She noticed that the certain action caught Phantom's eye, but she ignored it. So much had happened in a relatively short amount of time. It was lucky that she'd finished all her homework at school, since she was sure that the only thing she would be capable of accomplishing once she got to St. Alice's would be a nap. _All I need is a reason to head home._ She mused, trying to think of a way to politely leave Phantom's company. A moment later, the ghost girl back tracked. Reason. She had overheard some firemen talking earlier, and they had said that they thought that the fire hadn't been an accident; someone had set it on purpose.

Deliah's mind began to go into overdrive. Who would want to set a fire to a building? And a better question: who could gain something from such an act? Maybe the person responsible had wanted to destroy something inside the building? That didn't make any sense, the floors that had been burning didn't belong to anyone important, since the people living in those particular apartments had been on the poorer end of the spectrum. Maybe the person wanted to see the firemen in action? No, that wasn't it, it had been . . . Phantom and her. They had been the ones who'd finished the job. But who would want to-

"Plasmius." Deliah said darkly. Phantom looked up in surprise when she uttered his enemy's name.

"What?" he asked, but the Phantom girl shook her head as her eyes narrowed in thought. If Plasmius was behind this, then the fire was just the tip of the iceberg, and whatever was still buried couldn't be good. There was only one thing to do.

"I-I have to go." she told Phantom. He didn't even get a chance to ask why before she jetted off in the direction of the woods that eventually became the woods around Lake Eerie.

000000

Danny didn't know what was going on. First Deliah Phantom said his arch-nemesis's name and then flew off with no explanation? They were 'cousins' now, for crying out loud! You'd think that would entail more of the sharing of information. Add that to the fact that the ghost hero had found out a few months previously that his enemy was still alive and very much at large, and suspicion was making it's way into his thoughts.

So it wasn't much of a surprise when Danny Phantom flew after his female look-alike.

**Okay, first and foremost: thank you to Kaminari Wolfblood, who wrote me the nicest review, and inspired me to finish up the chapter. And thank you, fabulous reader, for sticking by me. I know that it's been a long time in coming, but I finally came back.**

**And if you're thinking of opting out, just know that chapter 20's title is 'The Discovery'. Ha! That should keep you around! And, just for you doubters out there, the title is not a trick. I do mean The Discovery. ^^ I feel quite despicable.**

**Thank you once again!**

**Keep laughing, y'all!**

**-Alex**


	20. The Discovery and a Good-Bye

**Hey everyone. I know it's been a long time. A really long time, and I'm sorry that it's taken me this long to come forward with this. I have bad and good news, and I guess I should start with the bad.**

**I'm discontinuing the Discovery of Deliah Phantom.**

**I know that a few chapters ago I said that I would never discontinue, but I've thought long and hard about my choice. I loved Danny Phantom, and I think that's the crux of it. I loved the show. I still really like it. But I don't love it any longer. I fell out of love with it. **

**I'm doing this because I have to force myself to write DDP. I used to be able to spit out several chapters without even trying, and now it's painful for me to write even one paragraph. I want to provide my readers with the best possible quality writing, and that would not be possible if I forced myself to finish DDP.**

**That being said, I've learned so much about writing through this story and all of you who have reviewed, faved, and alerted. I sincerely love each and every one of you, and offer up a thousand thanks from the bottom of my heart for supporting me. I was a complete newbie when I started, and I'd like to think that I've gotten better, and I've done that through your support.**

**However, I did say that I have good news.**

**Like I said, I loved DP. (Still have a HUGE respect for it. It was the show that got me started on writing seriously.) And I had Deliah's adventure all planned out. So I'm going to leave you guys the plan that I had for this story. If anyone wants to continue DDP, you can totally go for it and add your own twists, (provided you let me know) but this is how I saw it ending. PM me or leave a review with ANY questions about anything that doesn't make sense. I don't want to leave anyone hanging, and who knows? I might start a small collection of scenes that didn't ever make it into the final draft.**

**Once again, I'm sorry I took so long to put this out there. I wouldn't have been able to do all I did without you. Thank you **_**so much**_** for all you've done. It meant, and still means, more to me than you will ever know.**

**Love,**

**Alex**

Summary of _The Discovery of Deliah Phantom:_

Danny follows Deliah, who ends up arriving at the training facility she'd stayed at for a few weeks. He's suspicious, but takes care to prevent Deliah from knowing he's there. Deliah enters the facility, and stumbles across Vlad and Josh arguing. Angry, she confronts them. She finds out that Josh knows who she is.

Instead of answering her questions, the two men began taunting and insulting her, getting more and more cruel the longer they go at it. At first, Deliah ignores them, asking her own questions, but Vlad reveals he knows about how her parents didn't want her, and attacks her. Deliah is stunned and makes no move to protect herself. Vlad hammers her, while Josh taunts her and her lack of belonging anywhere. Danny arrives for the end of it.

Deliah manages to escape from the facility, albeit in tears. She flies blindly until she crashes onto the hill Danny had shown her by the park. She huddles under a tree and stares at the cold, alone moon as she cries. Danny Phantom shows up. Without exchanging words, Deliah realizes that he heard what had just happened. He sits down next to her and embraces her. Deliah begins to cry in his arms. She cries for a long time until she falls asleep in his arms. Danny looks up at the stars when a bright, familiar flash startles him. He looks down and sees the white ring of power around his waist. He's confused, since he didn't call it forth, then his jaw goes slack as it changes Deliah Phantom into his sister.

He connects the dots, then takes her to St. Alice's, tucking her in. He tells Sam and Tucker, but not Jazz. He needs time to process what just happened.

The next morning, Deliah wakes up, feeling a bit sick. She brushes it off, wondering how she got into her room. She figures out that Phantom must have brought her back. She does a face palm when it dawns on her that she must have changed, otherwise she wouldn't be in her bed.

After school, Deliah hesitantly asks Sam to help her do a bit of shopping. Sam agrees, wanting to talk about Danny. Sam takes Deliah to a goth store, where Deliah finds a white and black floor-length skirt that she could wear over her pants in her ghost form for the party. Deliah pays for the skirt with her debit card. Sam finds out about her parents and their connection with Deliah, but agrees to keep quiet because she had kept quiet about her own wealth.

That night, Deliah changes into her Phantom form and tries to do something with her hair for the party. Danny Phantom shows up, asking if she's ready. Deliah admits that she feels a bit sick, but she'll be okay. She then asks how he knew, and Danny explains about what happened at the tree. He promises to keep quiet. "After all, that's what family's for." Deliah thinks to herself that she never really had a family, but thanks him anyway. She puts the skirt over her pants, and notes that Phantom has a black overcoat and a white tie. He shrugs, saying that a friend had told him that if his cousin was going to change her look a bit, so should he. Deliah raises an eyebrow, but says nothing.

The party is a gathering for the elite of Amity Park and the press. It gets crazy when the Phantoms arrive. Deliah is bombarded by the press again. When asked why she fights, she responds, "Because no one was there to fight for me. When I was alive, no one was there for me. I never had anyone stick up for me. No one thought I was worth sticking up for. No one was there to fight for me, so I'm going to do everything in my power to fight for those who have no one else. I fight because no one did for me." There's a brief silence after that, and the sky grows dark.

It's Desiree. She doesn't do much but remark that Ben doesn't have much time left. Deliah flies off to see him.

When she arrives, Ben is close to death from overheating. Deliah kneels next to him, takes his hand, and absorbs all of his excess heat. Ben gets better, but Deliah changes back and falls in bed soon after, feeling light-headed.

The next morning, Deliah is feeling sick. Really high fever. She's delusional, so she goes to Sam's, where Tucker and Danny also are. Deliah asks if she could hang in Sam's huge walk-in freezer for a while. She sits on a box of frozen vegetables and pulls out her sketchpad. She draws Phantom. Phantom shows up and asks if she's okay. She tells him to leave. As she gets up to leave, Phantom notes that the box of frozen vegetables was completely cooked. As Deliah walks back to St. Alice's, she trips and grabs a light pole to keep her balance. She doesn't notice how it melts and almost bends in half when she touches it. She collapses on the sidewalk. Phantom coats his hands in ice as he picks her up and takes her to the Far Frozen.

Once there, she is instructed to release the heat. She does, and almost melts half of the region. Frostbite explains that she has extraordinary heat abilities. He says that her abilities aren't self-generating like Danny Phantom's, but she must draw on the heat of others in order to fuel her own fire. If she doesn't release it, she could overheat like Ben almost did, and die.

A few weeks later, school ends. Deliah doesn't mention that she only has two weeks until she's shipped off again. She leave Amity Park without saying good-bye. Her newest foster father is to be Vlad Masters. Danny finds this out from some hacking on Tucker's part and flies to Deliah as she arrives. Vlad manages to capture Danny, but leaves to greet Deliah.

Vlad asks Deliah if she'll be his daughter. He offers her a home and knowledge of what she can do. Deliah retorts that the last time he said that, it didn't work out. Vlad shrugs and takes a leave to let her think it over.

Vlad confronts Danny. He shows him is latest invention: the temporary Plasmius Maximus. It will only "turn off" one part of the body. Deliah hears part of it in ghost form. Vlad moves toward the restrained Danny to zap him, but Deliah intervenes, and the Plasmius Maximus ends up zapping her eyes. Furious, Vlad says that the two Phantoms have one hour to get out before synthetic ectoranium is filtered through the vents. He releases Danny from his bonds, saying that if anyone changes back human, the ectoranium will be automatically filtered through, and the same thing goes if they go farther than ten feet from each other or goes intangible.

Deliah is furious with the fact that she's slowing them down. She feels useless, despite Danny reassuring her that she's not. She falls to her knees and pounds the floor with both of her fists. She realizes that that action sent out a heat wave, and gave her an image of what the room looks like, based on how the heat moved. The Phantoms use this to find their way out, with Deliah's eyesight beginning to return as they make their way outside.

Once they are outside, Vlad comes out, and proclaims that Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom are one and the same. Deliah rejects the idea, but thinks back to the picture she drew of Phantom while she was sick, and how similar it looked to Danny.

Vlad also reveals that he and Josh were working together to bring Danny Phantom in, as it was Josh who had been the one to insist that Danny Phantom needed to be stopped. The fact that he saved the world was a bit to his face, and he had been stripped of his title. Vlad also says that he had wished for Skulker to attack the plaza, and for Desiree to appear at the party, courtesy of a few wishes. Vlad then sics a legion of ghosts on the two Phantoms.

Deliah is furious. She's tired. She just wants to go somewhere where she can think. All of her rage builds up, until she can't hold it in any longer. She tells Danny to hit the deck, which he does, without hesitation. Deliah focuses on her anger, and forces it out. She pushes all of her fear, anger, resentment, impatience, and frustration out. This results in the white power ring that she uses to transform between Phantom and Preston appearing, but she keep pushing. The ring expands to its normal size, but with a final shove and cry from Deliah, it expands in all directions very quickly. A sonic boom is heard. The exhaustion of what she just accomplished is taxing, and Deliah drops to her knees and hands. When she looks up, there's not a single ghost left standing from the legion Vlad had summoned. Danny is looking at her, eyes wide.

The government shows up. Danny flies home and explains it all to his family.

The Fentons, along with Tucker and Sam, meet at the park in Amity Park to talk with Deliah. They tell her that she was born a few minutes after Danny, and that a nurse had taken her off to be measured after asking her name. The nurse came back a while later, telling them that she had died. The hospital had supposedly taken care of the body, so there was no reason for them to have to deal with any sort of funeral. Maddie and Jack had always wanted her. They donated money to the Child Services program every year on her birthday in remembrance of her.

Deliah denies it briefly, not knowing what to think. This story contradicted everything that she had ever been told. As she processes what's being said, Tucker grabs her sketchpad and flips it open to the picture she'd drawn of Danny Phantom. Danny smiles as he transforms. He holds her hand and walks Deliah over to his parents and Jazz. They all smile. Deliah takes a deep breath. "My entire life, I've been Deliah Preston. I always knew that there was something wrong about my name. I never gave myself a middle name, because my last name in of itself felt wrong. What's my name? My full, given name?" she asks. They tell her Deliah Rose Fenton.

Deliah smiles, because it feels right. The first full Fenton family group hug takes place, and it feels like home. It feels complete. For all of them.


End file.
